The éedelaFaïMusée de la Faïence de Marseille was a museum in southern Marseille, France, dedicated to faience, a type of pottery. It opened to the public in June 1995, in Château Pastré at 157, Avenue de Montredon 13008 Marseille. It closed on 31 December 2012, to allow for the transfer of its collections to the new faience museum at Château Borély, the Museum of the Decorative Arts, Fashion and Ceramics, as part of preparations for Marseille becoming the European Capital of Culture in 2013.
The museum was housed in the 19th century, building named after its former owner Eugène Pastré (1806–1868). The château is at the end of a long avenue in the Campagne Pastré park, owned by the city of Marseille.
Château
Eugène Pastré and his wife Céline de Beaulincourt-Marles wanted to build a house suitable for the celebrations and social gatherings they gave. Around 1860, they assigned construction of the building to the Parisian architect Jean-Charles Danjoy (1806–1862), who had undertaken a first plan at the request of the city of Marseille for the Palais Longchamp, which was not accepted. The country house is polychrome, with pink bricks and white stones, with curves and counter-curves.
The layout of the castle allows it to exhibit nearly 1,500 pieces of ceramic pottery. All exhibits on the ground floor, however, were removed a few years ago. The cases have since remained completely empty.
Faience of Marseille
There are records of pottery being made in Marseille from the sixteenth century. In 1526 Claude Forbin, lord of Gardanne, started a faïence works with an Italian, Jean Angeli from Offida. They established the pottery in one of the suburbs of Marselle, at Saint-Marcel, and engaged a Spaniard named Sanchez from Lérida to run the operation. In the 1520s, the skilled worker Bruno Catani, son of the Milanese Antoine Catani who had trained him in Marseille, established himself in the suburb of Aubagne. He produced a wide variety of pottery products. Two other potters, Antoine Franc from Manosque and Laurent Borelli from Grimaud, rented space in his factory and use of the oven on condition that they did not make competing products. In 1535, Jean Angeli had joined them. Nothing is known of the details of their production.
A potter named Antoine Cléricy is named as making fine glasswork and pottery in 1641 at the chateau of Fontainbleau. He seems to have been the ancestor of the Clerissy dynasty of potters in Marseilles.
After this first production of little importance, the resurgence of the art of pottery in Marseille is the work of an influential and wealthy personage, Joseph Fabre (1634–1717) former consul, financier, owner of a silk factory and banker of the Duke of Savoy. In 1675, he brought Joseph Clérissy from Moustiers-Sainte-Marie (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) and installed him in his property of Saint-Jean du Désert, launching the manufacture of faïence in Marseille. This industry grew from the end of the seventeenth century and reached its full development in the second half of the eighteenth century between 1750, and the French Revolution. The increase in demand was due to population growth and the rise of a middle class looking for luxuries. Refinement of the domestic environment and adoption of more formal dining manners stimulated development of high-quality products.
By 1787, on the eve of the revolution, there were nine manufacturers of enameled faience: Agenl and Sauze, Antoine Bonnefoy, Boyer, Fauchier, Fesquet, Ferrin and Abellard, Joseph-Gaspard Robert. Honoré Savy and Jean-Baptiste Viry.
Exhibitors
The collection is based on acquisitions by the City of Marseille as well as a number of valuable gifts, providing a representative set of faïence from Marseille as well as some pieces from other locations. A famous collection of faïence from Pierre and Lison Jourdan-Barry was given to the city in April 1995, and in 1998, an exceptional set of eighteenth century work of Moustiers was added. The museum now has one of the finest collections of faïence in Europe. In addition, the museum has a fine collection of contemporary glass and of ceramics from 1950 to the present.
The Faience makers from Marseille whose works are exhibited in this museum include Joseph Clérissy, Madeleine Héraud, Louis Leroy, Joseph Fauchier, Veuve Perrin, Honoré Savy, Gaspard Robert and Honoré Bonnefoy.