Nevers faience

Nevers faience, French tin-glazed earthenware introduced from Italy to Nevers in 1565, by two brothers named Corrado. As the Conrade family, they and their descendants dominated Nevers faience manufacture for more than a century. The earliest authenticated piece of Nevers, dated 1589, is a large oval polychrome dish depicting a mythological subject, the triumph of Galatea.

Although inspired by Italian models, this first period of Nevers faience already showed a freedom in interpretation that was to grow more distinctive in the post-Conrade period, after 1674. Nevers became the first French centre to use Chinese decorative motifs. Nevers also shows the Chinese influence in choice of colour, though it added a distinctive manganese purple to the original blue and white of the Chinese ware of the time.

At almost the same period, Nevers produced vases in the “Persian manner” (Bleu Persan); these too were free interpretations. Besides these costly wares, Nevers produced cheaper ones: the so-called faience parlante, pots and plates illustrated with scenes from everyday life treated in a satirical manner, and the faience patriotique, bearing political slogans of the time. Only six factories remained in 1797 out of the 11 in 1743; two of these are still in existence. The decline of Nevers was caused less by the Revolution than by the competition of cheaper English earthenware.