Fantasy Dinner Party by Mark Meadows

As Adela mentioned, everything we do involves teamwork, so now it’s my turn to post a blog entry.

I really like to cook, and so one of the things I like to do is get together with friends over a special meal. So I came up with the idea…if I could invite whomever I wanted, from any era of Quimper pottery history, who would I invite for a fantasy dinner party?

The possibilities are endless.

Our apartment is small, the kitchen even smaller…so the guest list can’t be too long.

What about Alfred Beau? We could talk about early photography and I really marvel at his artistic talent…

…so evident in pieces like this amazing serpent-form horn…

…and his painterly scènes bretonnes.

And I bet he would get along very well with Olivier Lapicque…a contemporary artist whose depictions of the daily activities of Breton fishermen and bistro life are created using a variety of media…

...faïence, bien sûr, but also…

…in a great nod to recycling, he uses a process called plomb étamé to take bits of lead foil that were originally intended to seal wine bottles to make wonderful images.

Mathurin Méheut would be a great dinner guest; an interesting man having worked on many different projects ranging from the decoration of the Normandie luxury ocean liner to serving as an artistic director at the Henriot pottery. He also documented the traditions of daily life in Brittany…

In this Méheut gouache, the subject is the annual pardon at Sainte-Anne la Palud. As a bonus, we share an interest in sea life, a love of animals, and a fondness for wild mushrooms…

…this is a plate from Meheut’s service La Forêt.

Berthe Savigny would add a bit of vraie petite bretonne to our table. She was born in Quimper, as was her brother, Pierre De Belay, who, in 1940 painted the image of a Breton repast pictured at the top of this blog post. The famous Post-Impressionist artist Emile Bernard was a family friend, so the conversation should be quite interesting. Berthe is best known for her “babies”…

…figures of young Bretons and Bretonnes, but as this market scene attests…

…she was equally adept with a paint brush. The scene documents the colorful activity at a market in the commune of Fouesnant, about nine miles southeast of Quimper.

And I’d invite Bernard Jules Verlingue…

I’d want Bernard because his technical expertise on the making of ceramics, wealth of personal family anecdotes about the day-to-day goings-on in the HB factory, and his abundant knowledge of the history and artistry of Quimper faïence would be the “glue” that would allow all my other guests from different eras and styles to become a whole.

Guest list settled…now to what’s on the menu and what to use as serving pieces.

The first decision is whether to go casual…

…or a little more elaborate…

I could announce the fare of the evening on a simple, elegant PB menu…

...or perhaps go for something a little more exuberant, like this HR menu…

We’d loosen up with an aperitif…get the conversation flowing with a kir Breton and some hors d’oeuvres. I could use either this circa 1925 piece from the HB factory…

…or this tri-lobed Porquier-Beau serving piece known as a mendiant…

I’d call everyone to the table by ringing this Henriot bigoudène-form clochette or bell designed by Charles Maillard in the 1920s…

A bigoudène is the term used to describe a woman from the commune of Pont- l’Abbé. The traditional costume of that area is among the most popular costumes depicted in Quimper pottery.

Once à table, we could begin with oysters as an entrée and I could use an unusually-shaped HB server…

…or go the classic route with this HR oyster plate…

Our vegetable could be asparagus served in an early Desvres piece made specifically for that purpose…

For the plat or main course, I’ll probably prepare my version of saumon en croûte…a mixture that includes wild mushrooms and échalotes sandwiched between two salmon filets and then encased in croûte that I make myself entirely from scratch…

It requires three full days of preparation…which can pose a problem since our refrigerator is not much bigger than a bread box, but the results are definitely worth it.

Afterward a bit of cheese…

…presented in a vintage, biniou-form fromager from Henriot.

And then a simple dessert; maybe some Plougastel strawberries presented in a vintage HB Quimper service à fruits designed by Bel Delcourt…

…or some famous ice cream from Berthillon. I could use this whimsical HB Quimper service à glace…

At the end of an enjoyable evening, Adela would wash the dishes, I’d dry, and J-P would search the floor for any stray morsels that may have dropped.

That’s my Faïence Fantasy Feast…what’s yours?


Reminder: This is the 50th blog post! So now’s the time to post a comment and get in on the drawing for Maggie’s grab bag full of goodies.