Clog
Henriot Quimper
Category
Ceramics
Date
1904 - 1914
Materials
Tin-glazed earthenware
Measurements
90 mm (Length)
Place of origin
Brittany
Order this imageCollection
Beatrix Potter Gallery, Cumbria
NT 641553
Summary
Miniature clogs, faience (tin-glazed earthenware), terracotta body, green loop handle, Henriot Faïencerie, Quimper, France, ca 1904-14; the front of one clog decorated with a standing male figure, the second decorated with a female figure, both in traditional Breton costume and with green stylised foliage to each side, the handle coloured in green glaze, yellow edge to rim.
Full description
These miniature clogs are part of the collection at Hill Top. Beatrix Potter purchased this farmhouse in the Lake District village of Near Sawrey in 1905, using the profits from her books. After her marriage to William Heelis in 1913, Beatrix relocated permanently to Sawrey. The couple made nearby Castle Cottage their home, but Beatrix spent as much time as she could at Hill Top. As well as a space for work and creativity – and the location for many of her famous tales – it became an intensely personal sanctuary for her. Beatrix knew exactly how she would decorate Hill Top and she arranged its interiors carefully and deliberately. She wrote: ‘I would have old furniture…it is not as expensive as modern furniture, and incomparably handsomer…’ Once she had renovated the farmhouse, she filled it with examples of local furniture and treasured heirlooms, like her grandmother’s warming pan and a set of plates decorated with designs by her father. The 1914 inventory of Beatrix’s family home, Bolton Gardens, South Kensington, lists ‘Bretaigne ware and Amphora, decorated fleur-de-lys etc. in blue’ in the Drawing Room, which might refer to this object and other pieces of Quimper pottery now at Hill Top. The clogs were made at the Henriot Faïencerie in Quimper, Brittany. It was one of several potteries in the town making tin-glazed earthenware decorated in a distinctive local style, often depicting men and women in traditional Breton dress. Henriot made a wide range of pots, including small souvenirs like these clogs. The original retailers label is still attached to the underside, which tells us it was sold by Chambon Godefroy, a ceramic and glass retailed based in the nearby city of Nantes. The object is recorded as having moved from Troutbeck Park, so might have been used to furnish Beatrix’s study at the property.
Provenance
From Troutbeck Park.
Marks and inscriptions
Quimper JR.
Makers and roles
Henriot Quimper, manufacturer