Cartes Postale

Today we are celebrating Vintage Thingies Thursdays@ Coloradolady please stop by and link here with the other blogs participating there.


With the importance of tourism to Brittany in the late 19th century a series of popular postcards, or cartes postale, were created that celebrated the character of the cities and towns, fishing villages and religious sites. Here are examples of the town of Quimper and the neighboring seaside town of Concarneau.





Fortunately the Breton lifestyle and dress were recorded as much of the traditional dress was disappearing. The white embroidered hats on the women and girls are called "coiffes" and were a tradition of the region.





In the Quimper factories the process of creating the faience was also recorded, which allows us to study their methods, many of which are continued today.

The oldest manufacture of Quimper faience started on the Odet River at the end of the 17th century, in the area of Quimper called Locmaria. In 1771 the HB (la Hubaudiere) factory was established, but competition soon arrived with the establishment of what would become the Henriot factory and the Pourquier factory. All had their own distinct identities and marks, and decoration was limited to finger painting of very simple floral designs. In 1872 the painter Alfred Beau started painting scenes on the faience. It was in this period that the design of the Breton man and woman in their traditional dress was created.

The factories were able to survive different economic times by concentrating on creating domestically-used items such as salt tubs, platters, bowls, and pipes. Over time the factories were consolidated into one, which is still located in Locmaria, and distributes this beautiful faience around the world!

Different procedures were recorded, such as creating the molds or the making the forms:






Other factory workers are shown at other tasks involved with firing, glazing and preparing the molds for painting:






This scene looks like a painter showing us her skill at decorating.



I have been able to collect a number of these cartes postales, from the Collection Villard, as ephemera supporting my faience collection. They can still be found at antique shows and fairs as well as at online auction sites.

Happy collecting!

Melissa B

French Railway Posters and 100th post giveaway.

Very, very soon we will reach our 100th post milestone and just as we did with the 50th, we have goodies to giveaway.
Just leave a comment on the 100th post to be eligible, the name of the lucky winner will be drawn by me (blogmistress Maggie) at the end of the month.

Today is 3 or More Tuesday at Tam's The Gypsys Corner so please stop by and link up with all the other blogs participating there.

I'd like to share a collection of posters that were used as advertising for various regions of France for tourism by the railway companies called Chemin de Fer.

I was initially drawn to the ones for tourism to Brittany and the towns around Quimper. Upon doing further research I found there were many lines traveling to the Loire, from Paris to the East Coast, to the Pyrenees and the Midi.

The Chemin de Fer (railroads) were initially started to haul minerals and the building of the main French railway system did not begin until after 1842, when a law legalized railways.

Some of the lines started between 1842 and 1862 include the Chemin de Fer de Paris a Orleans, Chemin de Fer Paris - Orleans - Midi, Chemin de Fer L'Est, and the Chemin de Fer de l'Etat.

For example, the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (usually known more simply as the PLM) was created between 1858 and 1862 from the amalgamation of the earlier Paris-Lyon and Lyon-Méditerranée companies, and subsequently incorporating a number of smaller railways. The PLM operated chiefly in the south-east of France, with a main line which connected Paris to the Côte d'Azur by way of Dijon, Lyon, and Marseille.






As for other tourist routes, the PLM commissioned poster artist Roger Broders to advertise, the Côte d'Azur and the French Alps. Lithographs of travel posters Broders rendered for PLM are still available commercially.





All the separate Chemin de Fer were absorbed in 1938 into the majority state-owned Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français, or SNCF.



The chateaux and cathedrals were well represented in posters to draw visitors. The styles were highly rendered and beautiful.








Brittany was also a draw, advertising the beautiful fishing villages along it's coast, as well as the tourist spots.






Over time the posters reflected the different artistic styles from Art Nouveau:



To the industrial style Art Deco:




And finally in a very modern graphic style:




Do these posters inspire you to travel as much as they do me??

Melissa B

PS I would like to credit the site AllPosters.com for all of the images except for the Brittany posters (they allow downloads of 72dpi).

Blue (and White) Quimper

It's Blue Monday over at Smiling Sally's and Mosaic Monday at Mary's Little Red House which gives me the opportunity to share with you my love of blue and white faience.

Please join both of our gracious Hostesses for more Monday magic.

My favorite color is yellow.... and what goes best with yellow? Blue (and white)! Especially the blue and white Quimper faience in my bright yellow dining room. Several of these pieces have a fleur de lis pattern on them, including a spectacular coffee set I found in a small shop in Quimper.

I have always been enamored of the fleur de lis pattern in just about anything: fabrics, wall coverings, objets, and pottery. The pattern has always seemed so cheerful and joyous.

The English translation of "fleur-de-lis" (sometimes spelled "fleur-de-lys") is "flower of the lily." This symbol, depicting a stylized lily or iris, has many meanings. Traditionally, it has been used to represent French royalty, and in that sense it is said to signify perfection, light, and life. In the twelfth century, either King Louis VI or King Louis VII (sources disagree) became the first French monarch to use the fleur-de-lis on his shield. English kings later used the symbol on their coats of arms to emphasize their claims to the throne of France, though decorative ornaments that resemble the fleur-de-lis have appeared in artwork from the earliest human civilizations.



I was so excited to find this beautiful blue and white fleur de lis coffee set. This coffee set, marked Locronan xo, includes a pot, large sugar and small creamer, and two cups and saucers, all on a matching tray. All the pieces are also marked with a stylized ermine tail, one of the earliest markings denoting Quimper.
The set may have been made as a souvenir of Locronan, a small town not far from Quimper, Brittany.







All the handles have been painted with stripes, and the sugar pot is rather large - maybe owing to the great amount of sugar added to expresso?

I have a rather eclectic collection of other blue and white Quimper pieces that give me great joy to look at in the bright yellow dining room.

This shallow fan-shaped vase, called an eventail, is painted the same on front and back. It is marked HB Quimper with 4 dots in a diamond shape denoting the painter. It is great for short, spreading flower arrangements!







This pitcher, signed HB Quimper at the base of the handle, is much more casual in style. It has a wide stance and a stylized fleur de lis squarely in the front below the spout, as well as geometric patterns on the sides. The handle and spout are lined with a stipple pattern. The bottom is not finished and the red clay base is evident, indicating an early piece from the 1800's.









Many Quimper pieces are painted in multi-color patterns as well as blue on white. This large flat bowl painted with flowers is a good example.



I found a very unsual plate on eBay many years ago that I found out was part of a service for a restaurant. It is marked Henriot Quimper with double lines below the signature, identifying the painter.



The fun geometric pattern, with a multi-ringed and stippled border, is a good foil to many of my more eleaborate pieces and fits in well with my collection of geometric plates and pitchers.

Happy Blue Monday!

Melissa B

A Sunday Favourite re run....... by Gay Smith

Each week on Sunday Chari @Happy To Design graciously hosts a Sunday Favourites Meme.

Chari describes the idea behind this Meme like this:
"Sunday Favorites" is designed to give bloggers an opportunity to share, once again, one of their favorite posts! I just love this idea!!! So many fabulous posts have been published...and regrettably, forgotten about...they have been buried under a myriad of previous posts. I just believe these fabulous posts deserve a second showing!!! In light of that, I thought it would be fun to do a brand new Sunday meme..."Sunday Favorites"...where we can repost a favorite! Many of you have been blogging for years and you have published some really great posts...it would be so nice to share them again!"

In the past month the QCI Blog has been receiving hundreds of new visitors every week, most of them have never seen or heard of Quimper before coming across a blog post linked to a "blog party".
So, today to help spread the word, we are sharing a blog written by QCI president Gay which was first seen in April this year.


"Have you ever considered which items from your collection you would grab if you had to suddenly vacate your house?





I know my husband would grab the Goudie pieces, but I would ‘save the children’.








The first piece I would grab is the two girls who look as if the older one might pull the toddlers arm off, … I always call this piece ‘sisters’ as it reminds me of me and my sister. I am the oldest; my sister is seven years younger. The truth is that as a seven year old I wasn’t very pleased to suddenly have another child in the family and we didn’t get off to a good start, I had been staying with an Aunt while my mother was in hospital after the birth of the baby (routinely 2 weeks then, now it’s frequently just 24 or 48 hours here!) and I had caught a cold, when she did eventually come home the only way I was allowed near her was wearing a mask… still as she got older we learned to rub along and I discovered that the best way to get my parents to do what we wanted was to get her to work on my father (or ‘old softy socks’ as we called him) On one memorable occasion we got to hear of a litter of kittens needing homes and between us we decided we would like one, my mother wasn’t keen, after all who was going to have to look after it once the novelty wore off? So we waited until just after Sunday lunch and ‘pounced’, I sent my sister to work on my father and waited upstairs, 10 minutes later we were dashing up the road to collect ‘our’ kitten, the last one of the litter and in our eyes the prettiest (she was a tortoiseshell or patchwork cat). We had that cat for 15 happy years (is that 90 in cat years?)….. My sister is over 50 now, despite the unpromising start, like the children in the figure we have had our tussles but in all those years we have never really argued……



The bookends came from the same seller at an antique fair, but at a later date. I just love the spirit of family and happiness they portray; I like to imagine they are sitting on a train or bus and are setting off on a family outing, who knows where? The Breton seaside perhaps…….





The little girls came from a Morlaix auction some years ago, like the book ends they are by Haffen and have the same clear blue in the decor.



I think they are very sweet, much too sweet to represent me and my sister, they are more like two of my charges from when I was a nanny.
Mostly my charges were boys but I did look after Mandy and Fern, two little blonde's with just two years between them.
I stayed with their family for two years, it was a lovely job, I met lots of interesting people and went on great holidays with them, but eventually I decided I had to literally ‘get out more’, being a nanny doesn’t offer much free time, so reluctantly I left and went to stay with friends and work in the Channel Islands – but that’s a whole other story……. "