Style Japonism, Chinoiserie / Ref.15306

MANUFACTURED IN BAYEUX : Candlesticks with chinese characters

Periods of the Widow Langlois and her daughters (1830-1849) or of Francois Gosse (1849-1870).

Mounted on a bronze base richly created and decorated with dragons in relief, the two Chinese characters form a couple. They both adopt the same position, symmetrically, one knee on the ground and wearing what appears to be a vase on a shoulder. This vase forms the lamp base and also has bronze mounts. Both lamps are what we call 'Carcel' lamps. Invented by Guillaume Carcel in 1800, the lamp of the same name is an oil lamp that has the movement of a watch and a pump to raise oil just to the wick. The reservoir being under the burner, the lamps adopt a profile elongated in height. These lamps, by their difficulty of production, were extremely expensive at the time. Thus, at the onset of the oil lamp in 1853, the Carcel lamp disappeared.

Both characters were produced unglazed, obtained by a first firing at 900 ° C called a warm up firing. These parts can be kept as is or be glazed. Some parts of pieces that we present here were glazed and they therefore have a glazed appearance It is these parts that have received a decoration whose motifs and colors are varied. As for the faces, they are remain plain and are simply highlighted with colors to make the eyes and mouths appear. When the privilege was abolished for Parisian factories to produce porcelain, Normandy began its turn in its manufacturing. There were four large factories: the Valognes, created in 1792, that of Caen (1797), that of Isigny and finally that of Bayeux. The last was the largest in production, its reputation and its lifespan of nearly a century and a half. Created in 1812 by Joachim Langlois, former director of the factory from Valognes, the Bayeux factory took place in the former Benedictine convent. In 1924, wanting to conquer the Parisian clientele, Joachim Langlois opened a small store in Paris at 88, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Martin and then at number 80. Later, this store was moved to 8 Rue Martel. In the 1820s, the popularity of the factory extended far beyond the national borders to reach Russia and the United States. The fame of the factory soon touched the highest levels of society. Thus, in the year 1828, the Duchess of Berry and many other dignitaries visited the store in Paris and made major purchases. When he died in 1830, Joachim Langlois left a factory at its peak, employing up to one hundred fifty people. It would be his widow, Marie-Jeanne Cavelier, who took over management of the business. New productions were presented officially for the first time in 1834, the Grand National Exhibition, Place de la Concorde in Paris. The factory was rewarded with a bronze medal there. In 1847, it was his two daughters, Jeanne and Sophie, who were responsible for the factory, for two years before selling it to François Gosse in 1849. Before becoming the owner of the factory Bayeux, Francois Gosse had, in Paris, 16 rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a workshop for decorating porcelain. To compete with large factories in Paris, he reduced luxury productions comparable to these and limited himself to new decors which were simpler and some were imitations from Japan and China. So he raised the full activity of the factory, which would be abundantly rewarded at World's Fairs (New York 1853, Brussels 1857 and gold medals at exhibitions in London in 1862 and Paris in 1867). Still, the death of Francois Gosse in 1870 marked the beginning of difficulties and his widow was forced to sell the business in 1878, to Jules Morlent. The factory remained in the hands of this family until its closure on 1 August 1951.

Widely distributed internationally, the works of the factory were often made to order. The two lamps shown here have probably been done when the factory was run by the widow Langlois or during the early production of Francois Gosse. Indeed, part of the factory of the widow Langlois was characterized by the production of parts in the form of Chinese characters, often in pairs, like in these two lamps. We therefore find many pieces mounted on bronze. These lamps are a good example of the achievements of the Bayeux factory at this time. However, Francois Gosse, despite his desire to reduce luxurious pieces, continued to produce similar parts: chinese characters forming a hole, flower girls, inkwells... These pieces inevitably make us think of chinese treasures, in fashion in France in the 18th century during the development of the style which one called “chinoiseries.”