Saint-Porchaire Ware (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles Saint-Porchaire ware is the earliest very high quality French pottery. It is white faience ware that was made for a restricted French clientele from the 1520s to the 1540s. Only about sixty pieces of this ware survive, all of them well known before World War II. None have turned up in the last half-century. When collectors first noticed this ware in the nineteenth century, the tradition of where it had been made had been lost, and it was only known as Henri II ware for some pieces bore the king's monogram. Its style clearly showed the influence of the Fontainebleau School of Mannerist decor, which introduced the Italian Renaissance to France. In 1898 Edmond Bonaffe linked its source for the first time to the village of Saint-Porchaire, Poitou. He noted that in 1552 Charles Estienne had spoken of the beauty of the Saint-Porchaire ware, and that in 1566 a local poet had praised it in a poem and cited 16th-century inventories that includes objects of terre de Saint-Porchaire or made facon de Saint-Porchaire.