French faience and country pottery: how to read, use and display it

French faience is the painted pottery most people picture on a country dresser, but sellers use the word for almost any old French ceramic. Knowing which body you are holding decides how it should be described, whether it can serve food and how it should be washed. Collectors and designers seek these pieces because they bring color and handmade irregularity to a room at a scale that suits everyday life.

Tin-glazed faience

True faience is a soft, porous earthenware body under a glaze made white and opaque by tin oxide. Painted decoration sits in or on that glaze. Faience is lighter than it looks, chips to show a buff or reddish body, and often shows fine crazing. The Metropolitan Museum's essay on French faience explains the technique and its history.

Faïence fine and terre de fer

In the nineteenth century, French factories turned to faïence fine, a fine white or cream earthenware under a clear lead glaze, close to English creamware. Harder versions sold as terre de fer or demi-porcelaine are the French counterpart of ironstone; read antique ironstone and French terre de fer.

Majolica, stoneware and earthenware

French majolica, called barbotine, is molded earthenware with thick colored lead glazes, often in relief. Stoneware (grès) is fired hot enough to become dense and watertight. Glazed earthenware covers the confit pots, terrines and gratin dishes of country kitchens. See antique majolica plates and antique stoneware crocks.

From Rouen and Nevers

According to the Metropolitan Museum's essay, tin-glazed faience emerged in France in the sixteenth century under Italian influence, with workshops at Lyon and Rouen, and Nevers became a major center in the early seventeenth century. Demand grew when Louis XIV, in 1689, called on the nobility to melt down their silver plate, and faience took its place on aristocratic tables.

Grand feu and petit feu

Early faience was decorated in grand feu: colors painted on the raw glaze and fired once at high temperature, which limits the palette to blue, yellow, green, manganese purple and orange. From the second half of the eighteenth century, petit feu added a second, lower firing that allowed reds, pinks and finer detail. Looking closely at the colors is the first step to reading a plate.

Provincial factories and the nineteenth century

Centers such as Moustiers, Marseille, Strasbourg and Quimper developed their own styles, and nineteenth-century factories such as Gien, Sarreguemines, Lunéville, Longchamp and Creil-Montereau produced printed and painted wares for a wide market. These names describe history, not the plate in front of you: a plate in the Quimper manner without a mark is not Quimper. Our guide to French faience plates, factories and marks covers the main centers.

Plates for the table and the wall

Dinner plates of about 9–10 in (23–25 cm) and dessert plates of about 7–8 in (18–20 cm) are the most common faience forms. Talking plates (assiettes parlantes) with inscriptions, and series with scenes, are collected for the wall. Lo Cantou keeps a page on vintage faience plates with marks and condition shown.

Oyster plates and fish plates

Oyster plates have six or twelve wells around a central well for lemon or sauce; fish services pair a long platter with plates, each painted with a different species. Both were made in majolica, faience and porcelain. See oyster plates: forms, marks and display, antique fish plates and fish services, and Lo Cantou's page on oyster plates.

Tureens and serving pieces

The soupière, a deep covered bowl with handles, a notched lid and often a stand, survives in faience, porcelain, ironstone and silver plate. A complete tureen has its lid, and ideally its stand and ladle. Read antique soup tureens before buying one as a centerpiece.

Crocks, jars and kitchen pots

Salting crocks (saloirs), grease jars, oil jars and confit pots range from about 6 to 24 in (15–60 cm) high. Some are stoneware, many are glazed earthenware; the body decides what they can still hold. Our vintage French kitchenware hub shows them beside copper and wood.

What a mark proves

A mark can name a factory, a decorator, a retailer or a town, and it can be painted, printed, impressed or added later. Our guide to signed pottery and marks on French ceramics sorts the four kinds. Attribute only by mark, compare it with documented examples, and describe unmarked pieces as "in the manner of" a center.

Crazing, hairlines and chips

Crazing, a fine network of cracks in the glaze, is normal on old faience and majolica and is cosmetic on display pieces. A hairline crack through the body is structural: tap the rim gently, and a dull note instead of a ring suggests a crack. Chips at the foot matter less than chips at the rim, which show and can spread.

Restorations

Old restorations include metal staples, visible as pairs of small holes either side of a crack. Modern restorations use fillers and repainting that can be hard to see in daylight; under an ultraviolet lamp, painted repairs often look different from the original glaze. Ask the seller for photographs of the back and of any repair.

Food safety

Old lead glazes, used on majolica and much country earthenware, can release lead into acidic foods. Use those pieces for display, bread or dry foods, not for vinegar, wine, fruit or tomato dishes or for long storage. Sound, uncrazed stoneware and later faïence fine are generally fine for serving. Any piece with a hairline crack should stay away from hot food.

Washing and storage

Hand wash in lukewarm water with a mild detergent and dry at once; never soak porous earthenware, which takes up water through chips and crazing and can stain. Keep faience out of the dishwasher. Stack plates with a felt or paper disc between them. The Canadian Conservation Institute's guide to caring for ceramic and glass objects covers handling and display.

Hanging plates on a wall

Use adjustable spring hangers sized to the plate diameter, with the claws padded so they do not chip the rim, or adhesive disc hangers on the back. Check older spring hangers, which can tighten and crack a plate in a warm room. Arrange a plate wall on the floor first, keeping about 2 in (5 cm) between plates.

Choose a color story

Faience reads best in one color family: blue and white, the polychrome of Quimper-type plates, or the ochre and green of country earthenware. Mixing makers and periods is fine if the palette holds. Our page on French country tableware shows how to build a mixed table around one glaze.

Ask the right questions

Before buying, ask for the diameter or height in centimetres, a photograph of the back and of the mark, and a description of every chip, crack and restoration. A seller who cannot answer is not necessarily dishonest, but the price should reflect the uncertainty. Lo Cantou lists antique French tableware with this information.

For designers

A designer assembling faience, ironstone and serving pieces for a client project can send a brief to Antiques 360 for documented tableware from dealers in southwest France, with the landed cost known upfront. Our French country antiques guide explains what the documentation covers.

Kitchen

Confit pots, crocks and glazed earthenware belong on open shelves and the floor of the kitchen, with a few plates on a rail. Our French country kitchen page shows the arrangement.

Dining room

Faience and ironstone plates fill a dresser in the dining room, a tureen sits at the center of the table, and oyster plates come out for winter lunches. The dresser itself is covered on our page on French country sideboards and buffets.

Walls, hallways and gardens

A plate wall suits a hallway or a staircase; our page on French country mirrors and wall decor covers groupings. Frost-proof stoneware jars can stand in a garden; glazed earthenware should come in for winter.

Each guide takes one form or one body of French faience and pottery, with the marks and checks that matter. New guides are added as they are published.

• French faience plates: factories, marks and care
• Oyster plates: forms, marks and display
• Antique soup tureens: French faience, porcelain, ironstone and silver plate
• Antique ironstone and terre de fer: marks, crazing and everyday use
• Antique stoneware crocks: reading French grès, forms and condition
• Reading an antique majolica plate: glaze, mark and wear
• Antique fish plates: sets, platters and the dresser wall
• Signed pottery and pottery marks: what a signature proves