Rouen ware

Rouen ware, faience (tin-glazed earthenware) and porcelain wares that made Rouen, Fr., a major pottery centre. In the 16th century faience was used as an element of architectural decoration and in apothecary jars. A Rouen potter, Edme Poterat, who opened a factory in Rouen in 1647, is credited with the invention of France’s soft-paste porcelain. He also introduced the radiating festoon style (style rayonnant) of decoration, which, though it was new to pottery, was already popular in furniture, bookbinding, and garden design. Rouen ware is prized also for the embroidered style (lambrequin), which was predominant during the first quarter of the 18th century.

At Rouen, as at Nevers, Fr., faience was made in the Dutch–Chinese manner, using a camaïeu (monochrome) technique to decorate a fine milky-white background. At first the decoration was executed only in blue; then red and yellow were added to produce polychrome ware. A still costlier and rarer type of this faience, made in about 1725, was of black and blue design on a yellow or brown background; an even rarer one was of red on blue. In the second half of the 18th century another striking type of Rouen faience was the highly original oriental-style ware, the makers of which blended elements of the Chinese famille rose and famille verte styles with elements from the Japanese Kakiemon style.

Rouen, like Nevers, also produced cheaper and more popular faïence parlante type of ware with satiric genre scenes, including the music plates that are sought after as the source of information about the popular songs of the 18th century. Like Nevers, too, Rouen produced large free-standing statuary. Production declined in both cities, however; the faience factories of Rouen had dwindled to only 10 in 1798.

Rouen porcelain has a slightly greenish tinge, though it is translucent and is decorated in a blue camaïeu. Edme Poterat developed the soft-paste porcelain in an effort to imitate delftware; Rouen porcelain was produced under royal privilege granted to his son Louis Poterat from 1673 until 1696, when Louis died without divulging its secret. The products of that period, now very rare, were small vases, cosmetic jars, and condiment containers. Specimens are often confused with the better known Saint-Cloud porcelain. In 1743 Nicolas Levavasseur attempted to revive the production of porcelain in Rouen, but his wares were of poor quality.