TABLE LINEN

Paris Universal Exposition - 1867

Polychrome enamelled earthenware

Unlocated.

© PFNOR, Rodolphe, Ornementation usuelle de toutes les époques dans les arts industriels et en architecture [Standard ornamentation from all periods in industrial arts and architecture], Paris, E. Devienne, 1866-1867, vol. 1, p. 29.

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Centerpiece of a table set in enamelled earthenware created by Auguste Jean and presented at the Paris Universal Exposition in 1867. Depicting a mermaid surrounded by reeds and supporting a basin, this work, now unlocated, is reproduced by a lithograph by Rodolphe Pfnor in his Ornementation usuelle de toutes les époques dans les arts industriels et en architecture. Pfnor highlights its quality: "Can anything be more exquisite than this mermaid among her reeds; if it achieves, we say, this primary goal of earthenware art, the joy in the feast, it aims beyond."

The piece is also documented in the Maciet albums preserved in the Archives of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris (138/20, [Céramique. France. XIXe siècle. Artistes. D-L], 91). A true three-dimensional sculpture, it testifies to a lesser-known aspect of Auguste Jean's production, who at the time created certain exceptional pieces in collaboration with a sculptor whose identity remains unknown.