Deck's 'artistic faience' at the Musee Du Florival; Marthe and Rene Bloch-Angly have recently presented a munificent gift of ceramics by Theodore Deck to the Musee du Florival in Deck's native town, Guebwiller. It covers almost the full range of his output, and includes some notable rarities

The works illustrated in this article are of faience and were made in the clay ware of (Joseph-) Theodore Deck (1823-1891) They are in the collection of the Musee du Florival, Guebwiller. All photos: Henri capsule Musee du Florival

When Theodore array died in 1891, he had lengthy been regarded as the leading French ceramicist of his day. As Sevres' chief administrator, he was nationally celebrated for having revitalised and transformed the ceramic industry. (1) In 1858 in collaboration with his brother Xavier, he established a earthen ware in Paris to make 'artistic faience', a scheme by dint of which he attracted a changing stable of notable artists, many with established reputations. Deck's name became associated with a series of brave technical experiments and innovations of great aesthetic beauty, to which the artists made their individual contribution. This creative crucible achieved of the like kind success that its productions were widely sought by dint of museums and collectors. (2)

The world's largest public collection of these ceramics is in the Musee du Florival, in Deck's native town of Guebwiller, Alsace. (3) sum of two units years ago its curator, Julien Schweizer, received a remarkable gift from Marthe Bloch-Angly (1930-2002) and her husband, Rene Bloch-Angly (b 1928) of a certain number of 220 pieces. It augmented the museum's embellish collection to well over 500 works, presenting a more comprehensive view of the pottery's wide-ranging output from its early days to its closure in 1904 Plaques, beakers vases, jardinieres, ornamented furniture and sculptural pieces, as well as a small selection of contemporary embellish look-alikes, reflect the Blochs' catholic taste. In 2004 which was also the twentieth anniversary of the museum's foundation, these pieces went upon public display in a fine novel installation. (4)

The driving force behind the gift was Madame Marthe Bloch-Angly, an enthusiastic collector. She discovered Deck's work in 1985 at the museum's inaugural exhibition, which explored his relationship with the Swiss artist Albert Anker. (5) Three years later she bought her first piece, a vase decorated with his glorious turquoise glaze, known as bleu embellish (Fig. 3). She subsequently added a variety of Deck's blue-glazed works, which were placed with the museum's holding to form an impressive display. In the 1990 her collecting gained focus, as she evolveed close links with the museum to make sure that her Deck purchases would enhance its holding and avoid duplication. It is a tribute to her potency and commitment that a collection of this quality was assembled in fourteen years.

[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]

She and her husband consolidated their collaboration in another important way. The museum has no purchase grant, and capitals for acquisitions have to be sought ad hoc a time-consuming process fraught with bureaucratic delays and an uncertain consequence Over and above the fresh gift, the Blochs helped confident some fifty works, including major decorate ceramics such as Anker's sum of two units masterly portraits of a burgomaster and his wife, the earliest examples through this Swiss artist to go into the collection and his vivid likeness of embellish (Fig. 2), capturing the efficacy observed by contemporaries. (6) The original drawing for the plaque was donated through another patron, Madame Brefin-Urban. Also acquired by means of the Bloch-Anglys are a rare, signed example of Deck's possess painted decoration (Fig. 6); a three-piece table decoration by the agency of the sculptor Joseph Cheret; and a transcript of Deck's La Faience, ornamentally confine by Charles Meunier to incorporate panels of beautify ceramic. They loaned these lock opener pieces to the museum until purchase capitals became available to buy them. When Madame Bloch learned that she was terminally ill, she and her husband decided to donate their collection to the museum immediately. Thanks to their generosity, the museum has been able to build up its historic collection of Deck's work, and to give an unparalleled picture of his Paris practice.

[FIGURES 2 & 6 OMITTED]

Almost a third of the Bloch-Angly Gift consists of plaques painted by dint of artists, more than sixty of whom worked for array at one time or another. (7) Many had exhibited, at the Salon or elsewhere, and were well-known in their day. Among the first to join the earthen ware was the neo-Grec painter Victor Ranvier, who headed Deck's decorating store in the 1860s. His plaque of a female bather (Fig. 5) single of six works by Ranvier in the gift, typifies his qualities of design and colour. It is clearly identifiable in an illustration of Deck's stand at the 'Union centrale' exhibition in Paris in 1865 where Ranvier was awarded a silver medal as 'one of the ablest of Deck's collaborators'. (8) Idyllic sights such as this were also a great deal of admired by Leon Arnoux, the art director at Minton, who was no mean justice of ceramic art. (9)

[FIGURE 5 OMITTED]

Better known contemporaries of Ranvier include the flower painter Eleonore Escallier and the Swiss artist Albert Anker. (10) Escallier worked with array throughout the 1860s, and her plaques with birds in the 1867 Paris Exposition Universelle were more [i]or[/i] less of her most accomplished work, full meriting the jury's description as 'magnificent'. (11) single of them, featuring an exotic southerly American Quetzal, is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The rare signed piece in the Bloch-Angly Gift (Fig. 8) bears comparison. This majestic plaque, sixty centimetres in diameter, is characteristically Japanese in inspiration, and is individual of a series of sixteen or more that she painted in Paris in 1871 perhaps during the turmoil of the discourse Anker joined Deck around 1867 and became individual of his most sought-after portrait artists. Although no Anker works are included in their gift, the Bloch had already helped the museum, as mentioned, to purchase several important pieces.