French Country · Encyclopedia · Pottery and Earthenware
Stoneware bottles
Stoneware bottles typical of the traditional potters of Lower Normandy, made until the early twentieth century. They held calvados, the apple brandy, and in winter some served as bed warmers.
French: bouteilles en grès · Lower Normandy
At a glance
- Region: Lower Normandy
- Material: salt-glazed or glazed stoneware
- Contents: calvados and other spirits
- Sign of age: an irregular profile
What they are
Stoneware is clay fired at a high temperature until it becomes dense and watertight, which made it ideal for storing spirits. The Normandy bottles shown in the book have the slightly irregular profile of hand-thrown work, a sign of their age.
They were made by local potters, a tradition that continued in the region into the early twentieth century.
Calvados and bed warmers
Their main use was to keep calvados, the apple brandy of Normandy. The book adds a homely detail: in winter some were filled with hot water and slipped into the bed as warmers.
Collecting and displaying them
Look for a sound neck and handle, an even glaze and maker's stamps, which some bottles carry. Avoid using them for food or drink unless you know the glaze is safe.
Grouped on a kitchen shelf or a staircase landing, stoneware bottles bring warm, earthy tones.
Source: Les Trésors de France: vieux métiers et objets d'autrefois (Éditions Rustica, Détours en France collection, 1995), pp. 130–135, with general background on the object. The book was published in 1995, so workshops, people and figures are described as they were then. Regional names and dates are given as the book records them; a style or a region of origin does not by itself date an individual piece.