Logo

Espace Céramique Jacques-Jeanneney
Association de Sauvegarde du Patrimoine Potier de Puisaye

 

 
Presentation
  -> History
  -> Thanks to...
  -> Contributions !
  -> Contacts
The Big Kiln
  -> Firing 2003
  -> Firing graph
  -> Pictures
  -> The firing video
Exhibition Pots/Plants
Pots & Exhibitions

Courses

Relay studio
Partners / Links
Come / Stay
Latest News
 
A little history...


Saint Amand en Puisaye and its neighbourhood are the most important sites for pottery in France from the fourteenth century onwards, largely due to its subsoil from which the Saint-Amand clay with its highly appreciated firing qualities is dug, and because an abundant supply of firewood was readily available.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the demand for jars, salting tubs and other voluminous objects intended for the preservation industry (a large number of salting-tubs from Saint Amand en Puisaye were sold, for example, to brittany salting companies...) increased continually. Limits on the number of firings permitted (at the time the maximum number of firings per year was 15 ) encouraged the Puisaye potters to construct bigger and bigger kilns : 35, 60m3 and up to 100m3 like the one on our site.

The existence of the Jaques-Jeanneney pottery in the pottery quarter of St Amand en Puisaye, is recorded from the 1820s onwards.

In the 20th century the site belonged to the sculptor and ceramist Paul Jeanneney until 1920, who worked for Rodin, then to the Jacques family of potters. Albert Jacques, then his son Roger, produced the whole range of the traditional Puisaye pots into the 1950s. Some of these remained in the drying sheds after production was abandonned and were still there in 2000!

After production stopped, time stood still on the site for five decades. Obviously the buildings started to fall down and the enormous kiln was progressively invaded by weeds, but the tools and the pots waited patiently in the workshops and drying sheds for somebody to open the door again...

In the memory of its two last owners, the pottery was given the name "Poterie Jacques-Jeanneney".

Since the end of 2004, the new official name for the pottery site is "Espace Céramique Jacques-Jeanneney" ... Chosen in agreement with local authorities, this name outlines the originality and the objectives of the site compared to the other local pottery sites and commercial potteries of the area.

 

 

 

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  © 2004 Asppp
   

 

E-Mail