Description

Antique French stoneware pitcher, gres – stoneware jug with cobalt blue flowers, Saint-Uze pitcher, collectable pitcher French rural style.

DESCRIPTION:
Antique lovely French stoneware pitcher or jug for milk, this pitcher is a production of Saint-Uze, light beige base and decoration of small cobalt blue flowers. This kind of stoneware has been produced in some villages in the Drome region, in Provence, from the early 1800’s. It’s a kind of gres ceramic, matt, enameled, known also as “fire porcelain”, composed of kaolin and feldspath that produces a vitreous compound.
The pieces were fired for the first time at 800°C, decorated or not, then enameled by dipping and annealed at 1,300°C. The decoration was only brown until 1880. The famous printed decorations based on cobalt blue affixed by rubber stamps under transparent enamel appeared at the end of the 19th century. Called Saint-Uze blues, these pieces mark the transition from purely utilitarian production to more decorative production in response to growing demand. These are the most frequently collected coins.
Strict control of the composition of the paste makes it possible to obtain a fine, very solid porcelain stoneware that can be enameled. The cooking was carried out in large ovens.
Rubber stamps were used in Saint-Uze from 1875-1880. This is an example of the industrial use of this new material at that time. These pads were used for the application of decorations printed using cobalt under a transparent cover. These are the “Bleus de Saint-Uze”, sold as “printed fire porcelain”.

HOW TO USE IT:
Wonderful antique French milk jug to collect or to use in your home decor in French rural style!

CONDITIONS:
Conditions of this antique French jug are good, there are no hairlines and no ruptures, to signal a manufacturing default to the spout. The pitcher has a light craquelure effect and the interior is clean with no stains.

MEASURES:
6″ (15.2 cm) tall, wide 6 1/2″ (16.5 cm).