Very nice hand worked VIEUX RHODES PITCHER by Boch Frères Keramis!
This is a pattern I infrequently see specimens coming out from mainly Belgium & France & Germany. This pattern is a stylized interpretation of Chinois motifs. "Vieux" means "old" and "Rhodes" is the largest island of Dodecanese Islands famous for having had one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World...Colossus of Rhodes. What is the connection to Chinois? Ha! I believe this is a reproduction/reinterpretation of a Boch pattern from the 1800's.
Okay...to the beautiful pattern > there are 3 themes around the sides >
PIC 1 - to the left close to the handle, are four chrysanthemums in various stages of blossom. Above which is a butterfly!
PIC 2a - a Lyrebird pecking away at lunch. Behind it, is a small patch of flowers outlined in ochre and delfts blue.
PIC 2b - is a large/tall exotic garden of several types of blossoms! The blossom in ochre is what I like to think of as a stylized tree peony :-)
The borders on the bottom of the bowl (not the foot) and the near the rim above the bird/blossoms, are similar and are bordered in cobalt blue. The foot itself has a modified/smaller version. This modified version is also on the handle.
CHINESE SYMBOLS >
- Chrysanthemum > intellectual accomplishments, cleansing qualities, cure illnesses, longevity, considered to be the ‚'gentleman of flowers' (also symbol of autumn)
- Peony > beauty, rank, higher social status, luxury, opulence
- Butterfly > long life, beauty and elegance
Pair of Cachepots in the same pattern >
https://www.etsy.com/listing/237157899/pair-delft-bowls-delfts-polychroom
Large Charger in the same pattern >
https://www.etsy.com/listing/237383238/vieux-rhodes-charger-lyrebird-by-boch
PIC 5 is a Stunning "POLYCHROME" (actual name of pattern, ha!) Trumpet Vase by this same maker >
https://www.etsy.com/listing/237491784/rare-delft-polychrome-pattern-trumpet
Would make a perfect MOM' BIRTHDAY GIFT or a fine addition to your collection!
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PHOTOS - integral to description, please use zoom feature for detailed views.
Boch Frères Keramis Info> 1748 to present
MARK -
"VIEUX RHODES BOCH" "BELGIUM" "Handworked". This probably dates from the 1950's & 60's. I'm listing other items of this pattern, so those will have a pic of the mark. (besides this printed mark, there are no incised marks or initials or numbers)
SPECS - about 8 5/8"H" x 5 1/8"D (widest part of bowl) > with handle > 7.25"W
CONDITION - Excellent!
- no hairlines, cracks, chips or flakes
- crazing is extremely minimal
- a few areas of thin glaze and glaze skips
MY SUBJECTIVE GRADING GUIDE >
Outstanding - pristine, like new
Excellent - excellent as it's an antique (minor issues)
Good - moderate issues
Fair - more than moderate issues, okay for display, but not a prized piece
Poor - major issues = deserves a continued existence
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🌺 HÅFA ADAI from the tropical island paradise of GUAHAN (Guam/USA) 🌺
Boch Frères Keramis Info> 1748 to present
1.1. From cast iron to ceramics
During the Belgian revolution of 1830 and the period of mutiny afterwards (1830-1839) the family BOCH had already acquired a long tradition in the field of faience and a lot of strategic experience in anticipating politic and economic developments. The family build up this know-how since 1748, the year François BOCH decided to abandon his occupation of iron caster to make ceramics in Audun-le-Tiche (Lorraine), assisted by his son in law Pierre Valette and by his three sons. They decide to produce simple pieces, cheap and for the largest possible public, made from loam from Luxemburg. François Boch deceased in 1854 and the faience factory was taken over by his three youngest sons, Jean-François and Dominique, twins of 19, and Pierre-Joseph, the youngest of 17.
2.4 1920-1950
Tableware reproduces once again various decors and series from previous periods. The catalogue from 1936 shows the diversity of the products of the Boch brothers, both in terms of reeditions of decors as in terms of creating new art deco decors. Here are some examples from this catalogue:
1. reeditions of the first period: series 1 of Napoléon, Grand Bouquet, GG, Laurier BF, …
2. reeditions of the second period: decors Pyrus, Luxembourg, abeilles (bees), Delft, Copenhague, decor Tournay, Laurier BFK, …
3. reeditions of the third period: Lucien, Pyrus, Dugazon, Rosa, Bonaparte, Ney, …
4. new art deco models: Corbeille, Melba, Damier, …
This period is mainly characterised by the production of ornamental items and art deco dinner sets created in the fantasy workshop of Charles CATTEAU. He carries of a first prize at the Paris international exhibition of modern ornamental and industrial arts 1925 with a vase in earthenware, various objects in earthenware, including an overpowering huge vase with deer’s and roes. With his team of employees he will produce thousands of vases and ornamental objects in fine faience and earthenware, developing different enamel techniques (shiny glazing, crackle finish or matt cloisonné in Longwy style), in typical stylised art deco decors inspired by geometric forms or forms from the fauna and flora, sometimes reminding Japanese influences. That production of ornamental objects also ends up with the creation of art deco decors on tableware. With the departing of Charles CATTEAU in 1950, Raymond CHEVALLIER succeeded him.
2.5 1950-2009
The faience producers are looking for a future in two different directions, on the one hand through innovation with modern and original decors, and on the other hand in concentrating on very high quality and luxury products, although with few workers.
Note: Today, this company survives under the Royal Boch Brands.
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"Faience or faïence (/faɪˈɑːns/ or /feɪ-/; French: [fajɑ̃s]) is the conventional name in English for fine tin-glazed pottery on a delicate pale buff earthenware body, originally associated by French speakers with wares exported from Faenza in northern Italy. The invention of a white pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an oxide of tin to the slip of a lead glaze, was a major advance in the history of pottery. The invention seems to have been made in Iran or the Middle East before the ninth century. A kiln capable of producing temperatures exceeding 1,000 °C (1,830 °F) was required to achieve this result, the result of millennia of refined pottery-making traditions. The term is now used for a wide variety of pottery from several parts of the world, including many types of European painted wares, often produced as cheaper versions of porcelain styles.
The first northerners to imitate the tin-glazed earthenwares being imported from Italy were the Dutch. Delftware is a kind of faience, made at potteries round Delft in the Netherlands, characteristically decorated in blue on white, in imitation of the blue and white porcelain that was imported from China in the early sixteenth century, but it quickly developed its own recognizably Dutch décor.
"English Delftware" produced in Lambeth, London, and at other centers, from the late sixteenth century, provided apothecaries with jars for wet and dry drugs. Many of the early potters in London were Flemish. By about 1600, blue-and-white wares were being produced, labeling the contents within decorative borders. The production was slowly superseded in the second half of the eighteenth century with the introduction of cheap creamware.
Dutch potters in northern (and Protestant) Germany established German centres of faience: the first manufactories in Germany were opened at Hanau (1661) and Heusenstamm (1662), soon moved to nearby Frankfurt-am-Main.
In France, centres of faience manufacturing developed from the early eighteenth century led in 1690 by Quimper in Brittany, which today possesses an interesting museum devoted to faience, and followed by Rouen, Strasbourg and Lunéville. In Switzerland, Zunfthaus zur Meisen near Fraumünster church houses the porcelain and faience collection of the Swiss National Museum in Zurich.
The products of French faience manufactories, rarely marked, are identified by the usual methods of ceramic connoisseurship: the character of the body, the character and palette of the glaze, and the style of decoration, faïence blanche being left in its undecorated fired white slip. Faïence parlante bears mottoes often on decorative labels or banners. Wares for apothecaries, including albarello, can bear the names of their intended contents, generally in Latin and often so abbreviated to be unrecognizable to the untutored eye. Mottoes of fellowships and associations became popular in the 18th century, leading to the Faïence patriotique that was a specialty of the years of the French Revolution.
By the mid-18th century, glazed earthenware made in Liguria was imitating decors of its Dutch and French rivals
In the course of the later 18th century, cheap porcelain took over the market for refined faience; in the early 19th century, fine stoneware—fired so hot that the unglazed body vitrifies—closed the last of the traditional makers' ateliers even for beer steins. At the low end of the market, local manufacturers continued to supply regional markets with coarse and simple wares."
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Delft Chargers were highly sought after display pieces as an alternative to framed oil paintings. Royalty, nobility, wealthy merchants and even rich farmers acquired these examples of hand painted art! Many of the depicted themes were actually copies of popular (now famous) original oil paintings of the Dutch artists and masters. The other themes primarily were Chinois patterns copied from the Ming imports. When rich farmers held a large celebration, they would clear out the barn and then hang Delft Chargers either on the horse stalls or the walls of the barn as part of the party decor for the rustic party venue!
“Old Delft” was expensive and mostly used to flaunt their owner's status and wealth by displaying in their formal dining rooms and other public rooms of their estates. These Delft pieces were exported all over the Western world including the New World as found in Williamsburg and other colonial towns in both North and South America. Delft manufacturers were threatened by Chinese imports, but when China went through their times of troubles and the kilns destroyed and potters killed, the Delft makers capitalized on the sudden rarity of Chinese exports and imitated Ming and Wanli/Kraak patterns to supply the continually growing demand. Eventually Delft potters began using their own patterns and incorporating what has become “iconic” themes of Dutch Windmills, Canals, Nautical and Biblical renditions. When the Chinese Imperial government stabilized, kilns were rebuilt, but found they had lost most of their market share. To regain that share, they began copying the Dutch designs. The humor in all this, is that many of the Dutch designs were copies of Chinese patterns! With all these cross-copying of patterns, meaning was lost and “fanciful” unreal patterns resulted!
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July 4th Independence Day > USA
July 21st Liberation Day WWII > GUAM/USA
Sep 14th Liberation Day WWII > MAASTRICHT, NL
Just wanted to take the opportunity to share this regarding WWII and the people of Holland in regards to the people of the US >
Near Maastricht, in Margraten, is the Netherlands American Cemetery. It is the only American military cemetery in Holland and where 8,301 of our soldiers rest eternal. There are Tablets of the Missing that contain 1,722 names. It's a beautiful and fitting resting place. I mention this because, we visited in 2010 and it was early May just after Koninginnedag (Queen's Birthday) as we were meeting a Dutch aunt who's married to a German citizen and they live in Germany and Maastricht is the halfway point from where we were staying. We were surprised and amazed at the thousands of visitors and the fresh flowers on EVERY GRAVE! It turns out, that ever since the cemetery was first created, every US Soldier's grave had been adopted by a nearby local family (also Belgian and German families across the border) and is visited several times a year and flowers laid and the soldier honored and remembered on certain holidays! It brought us to tears that after all this time, that the Dutch continue to honor and remember our soldier's ultimate sacrifice in helping to liberate their country! Thank you to the anonymous Dutch, Belgian, and German families who remember and honor our fallen!
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I'm not an expert on Porcelain. The information above is based on my research as a collector. It's time to downsize and find an appreciative home for this exquisite piece!
Feel free to contact me if you have questions or need additional photos.
