Among the joys of aesthetic period tableware are the patterns which avoid repetition on the tabletop--pictorial details vary even for pieces of the same size and shape.  With such sets one senses such an enthusiasm for the newly fashionable Japanese motifs that the production of identical plates would seem restrictive. The tradition may trace to Bracquemond's Service Rousseau. These ten plates from the French Vieillard faience manufactory present us with a total of thirty far eastern vignettes, each framed in the shape of a Japanese folding fan.

Three fans appear along the edges of the brown transfer-printed plate--each turned at a different angle to create a slightly undulating flow around the plate. Traditional Japanese subjects decorate each fan leaf, ranging from flowers and fish to exotic objects, from geishas and children to fierce warriors, and from gatherings of robed figures to flocks of cranes.  Connecting the fans is a figured band suggestive of a silk brocade.

One must note the printed fan mark on the backside. In a tortured script intended to suggest Japanese characters we have "JVaBx" for Jules Vieillard a Bordeaux--all contained within yet another fan-shaped field.

We have seen reference to the pattern as "Eventails" or "Fans." While this seems self-evident, we have not encountered examples so marked.

Fans were a central object of obsession for the followers of the late 19th century Japanese mania. We see them decorating interior walls, for example, in well-known portraits by Monet and Manet. In ceramic decorations we find fans depicted with other Japanese objects as well as fan shaped fields containing scenes or exotic patterns. Here the flat shapes of fan leaves contain images undistorted by folds, but the sticks are included lest we miss the point.

The Vieillard works in Bordeaux were a continuation of the pottery founded by immigrant Irishman David Johnston who introduced English style earthenware and transfer printing to France in the mid 1830's. Jules Vieillard took over operations in 1845 and in 1865 turned the pottery over to his sons who continued under the same name until 1895. The second Vieillard generation is known for inventive, often whimsical, excursions into the Japanese style. 

Other examples of this pattern are available from Seekers Antiques. Elsewhere on this site are listed a single dinner plate and a  large diameter charger.  In addition, for those wishing to assemble a group of twelve or more we have five additional duplicate plates not shown currently.  Contact us for information on other individual plates in stock.