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Faïencerie de Gien - Beautiful Napoleon III style earthenware planter "Bernard" with a gold decor, late 19th century

This beautiful planter with a polychromatic floral decor was made between the late 19th century and the early 20th century in the Gien earthenware factory as indicates the stamp on the bottom. It's the "Bernard" model, with a bulging shape resting on four snail feet and flanked with two handles. Its main decoration is composed of a beautiful lilies patch on a beige background, depicting white or colored with gold blooming flowers and buds surrounded by orange leaves. This decoration is lightened up with larges strips with stylised floral motifs and volutes in purple, green, yellow and turquoise reminding the famous blue of the ceramicist Theodore Deck. About the handles and the feet, they are colored with the same jade green used in this decor, that we also find inside the planter. Among the many earthenware factories born in the 19th century, Gien is one of the most reknown and the most important in Europe. It excels in the imitation art, and makes copies of pieces from the past to an affordable price. Unique pieces were also created thanks to talented artists who decorated them with new decorations, or were inspired by ones from the past or other European and Middle East factories. The factory was born in 1821 initated by Thomas Edme Hulm who buys the lands of the old Minimes convent in Gien to settle an earthenware factory after giving up the one in Montereau managed by his family since 1774. Because of financial difficulties, the Gien factory changes many times its name between 1826 et 1862, it is successively called « Guyon, Boulen & Cie », « Geoffroy, Guérin & Cie » before bearing its definitive name « Faïencerie de Gien » from 1875. The factory participates to the numerous exhibitions of the second half of the 19th centuryn especially the Wolds Fairs and wins many rewards. A planter with the same shape and a similar decor is conserved in the Charles VII museum in Mehun-sur-Yèvre in France

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Louis-Robert CARRIER-BELLEUSE for the CHOISY-LE-ROI faience factory, Bust of Diana, circa 1900

This highly original faience bust was created by Louis-Robert Carrier-Belleuse for the Choisy-le-Roi faience factory around 1900. Son of the famous sculptor Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, Louis-Robert distinguished himself in the field of decorative arts. He provided models for the Choisy factory, of which he became the artistic director in 1889. With her bare and sensual chest, despite the drapery partially covering it, the woman is crowned with a crescent moon identifying her as the goddess Diana, goddess of the hunt and also of the night. Her curly hair, held in a bun, reveals her beautiful face smiling with lowered eyelids. The bust rests on a Sarrancolin marble pedestal, whose veins echo the colors of the work. On the back, it bears the artist's signature, as well as the mark of the factory. The sculptor created another bust in the same spirit, also for the Choisy factory. This one represents the prophetess Velléda, a Celtic prophetess who inspired many artists in the 19th century.