Antoine Montagnon Delft and Faience

This lovely French “service fumeur en faïence”, or earthenware smoking service, has five pieces: a tray, and four pots of various sizes. Although every smoking set is unique, we presume theses pots are a tobacco pot to store the dried leaves, an ash receptacle, a pot for holding papers to hand roll cigarettes and/or cigars and a pot for keeping matches. Our set was produced in Nevers, France in the 19th century by Montagnon, the oldest earthenware factory in France. Originally called manufacture du Bout du monde (“End of the World factory”), the factory was founded in 1648. By 1875, the factory had fallen on hard times and was bought by Antoine Montagnon. Within the five years, it was the only faïencerie left in Nevers. Montagnon was successful for over a century but eventually ceased operations in 2015. The production date of our smoking service set is from the late 1800s. Glazed earthenware was introduced from Italy to Nevers in the mid-16th century. The town already had existing porcelain factories and the area was flush with clay deposits that could be used in pottery. This allowed the influx of Italian potters in Nevers to begin producing Faience pieces. For the next 300 years, Nevers was the center for French Faience manufacturing. This smoking set has been decorated with painted birds, rinceaux of flowers and ornamental motifs. The blue background color is called Persian blue, and was extensively used as a ground color on Nevers Faience...