VINDEFONTAINE. Large varnished earthenware... - Lot 170 - Aisne Enchères

VINDEFONTAINE. Large varnished earthenware lenticular fountain decorated with sunflowers and plant motifs in kaolin pastillages, the handles adorned with two ermines, topped with a large stopper in the shape of Napoleon I. Normandy, Manche, first half of the 19th century. Normandy, Manche, first half of the 19th century (H.: 73 cm) (a few small pieces missing, notably Napoleon's mantle and the ermines' tails and ears, tap missing). "Vindefontaine was home to one of the most important pottery centers in the Cotentin region. Pottery activity seems to have begun in the late Middle Ages and ended in 1894. Like all the other stoneware production centers in western Normandy, these workshops produced a wide range of utilitarian pottery: terrines, creamers, sinots, churns, bottles, honey pots, and so on. But Vindefontaine is most famous for its decorated pottery: pitchers, inkwells, stoup pots, vases and, in particular, brown-glazed stoneware fountains decorated with abundant kaolin pastillages." (Source: Traditional Ceramics in Normandy website) A similar model is kept at the Musée de Normandie in Caen, and a stopper in the shape of Napoleon at the Musée de Cherbourg.