BORDEAUX, MANUFACTURED BY JULES VIEILLARD AND EUGENE MILLET - Lot 195

BORDEAUX, MANUFACTURED BY JULES VIEILLARD AND EUGENE MILLET (1819-1879) Aux Grands Oiseaux" model Part of an earthenware dinner service known as "Aux Grands Oiseaux" with polychrome enameled decoration of birds, insects, plant and floral motifs, comprising: a covered vegetable dish, four oval trays, a cake dish, nineteen large plates, nineteen small plates, nine soup plates. This service is referred to in the Album des principaux modèles de la manufacture de Jules Vieillard à Bordeaux as décor Japonais, and its design is attributed to the decorator Eugène Millet. Many of the animals and birds are borrowed from the 1814 Album des peintures d'après nature (Hokusai Shashin Gafu). The décor of this service is in keeping with the trend towards Japonism that has been in vogue for some years now, not only in terms of its sources, but also in terms of its organization. the choice of a random distribution of motifs on the pieces, three subjects on the plates - large, medium and small - creating surprising, sometimes incongruous associations and a resolute desire for asymmetry. Maison Vielliard's décor Japonais service is thus in the tradition of the Rousseau service created by Félix Bracquemond from 1866 onwards, but it is even more Japanese, with its bright, cheerful colors in relief and in print, and the mark itself inscribed in a rectangular cartouche in the style of ideograms. - Jacqueline du Pasquier - J. Vieillard & Cie, histoire de la faïence de Bordeaux, de l'anglomanie au rêve orientaliste - Sèvres, Revue de Société des Amis du Musée National de Céramique de Sèvres, Paris, 2015, p. 135-136. Part of a service with the same decoration is kept at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Bordeaux.