FYI.............................. by Maggie Bryant

Today I thought that I would follow up on some of my previous blogs especially the last one which featured Doris’ collection.

Firstly, I want to mention a couple of articles that have appeared in the QCI Journal.
In Vol. 7 No 1, May 2005 author and Quimper expert Sandra Bondhus wrote about “Diminutive Delights”. “Miniature pieces which appeal to the child in all of us and have always held a special place in many collectors’ hearts”

It is an excellent tutorial on the type of Quimper pieces produced and the wooden Plozevet furniture on which they were displayed.

This leads me on to another very interesting article that appeared in the December Journal of the same year.
This time written by Don Batten with photography by Janice Kania it was entitled “Plozevet Museum of little Breton furniture”.

In the article Don explains that although he cherishes his miniature pieces of Breton furniture he always only used them as a backdrop for his pottery display.
That is until a visit to the Musee de Petits Meubles Breton convinced him that every piece is special and deserves more than a supporting role. There follows a fascinating glimpse into the legend, production, construction and producers of this charming Breton product.

On a personal note I think that every Q collection should have at least one piece of Plozevet in it, they can really bring a display to life.

In the same issue as the Plozevet article the Form & Decors article featured faience coffee & tea pots by Barbara Richardson, illustrated with some wonderful photographs submitted by the membership.

And.....whilst we're on the subject, a comment was posted on the “Nice cup of Tea” blog post earlier this month.

Hi, Maggie,
I've always wondered how to distinguish between French faience TEA and COFFEE sets! Can you explain the differences?
Thanks, Laverne

and I replied:

Welcome Laverne, you managed it at last!!
For me it's as simple as "is it a tea pot or a coffee pot? Round or tall?"
Anyone else care to comment?

Further investigation led me to the May 2006 issue of the Journal where I found that this same question had appeared in the Q&A section.

The reply that was given was this:

Coffee or tea? How do we tell the specific use intended for a given pot? Basically, two factors may be considered. One involves the pot itself. If the inside opening of the spout is made with a series of small holes, the vessel is considered a teapot – the small holes are intended to filter the tea leaves as the tea was poured. If the inner spout opening is just a single large opening, the pot is meant for coffee, which is not brewed in the pot.
The second consideration is the size of the cups. The French use a small cup for coffee (usually expresso), a medium cup for tea and the very large cups for breakfast (often coffee or tea au lait).
However, in the old Quimper catalogues, we see that very often the same pot, cream, and sugar served as the basis of a coffee, tea or breakfast service, the only difference being the size of the cups. This explains why the word verseuse, which means “something to pour from”, is frequently used as it covers both possibilities.

As mentioned in the previous blog some Journal back issues are available, simply email the Journal Editor. (The contact email addresses can be found in the Editorial Board announcement on the inside front page of your Journal).