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Jean Faucon Faience d'Apt

The earthenware workshops of the Apt country were founded in the middle of the 18th century, in the heart of Provence, in the Luberon hills area, a region of precious clay. Local clay has been used since Roman times and, from the 13th century, the workshops on the Pont Julien provide evidence of the vitality of medieval craft production.

Around 1720, at a time when royal edicts were demanding the sacrifice of silverware for the war effort, Abbot Moulin created a faience pottery for his nephews to use. The Lord of Castellet, the Duke of Brancas, encouraged the enterprise.

Faience reached its peak in the 18th century. 13 potteries and nearly 200 faience potters were exporting their work to the four corners of Europe. Jean Faucon, himself the heir of a long line of artisans who elevated tableware art, while chiseling clay as if it were gold, continues to produce its signature pieces of terre mélée faience—pottery in which the colored clays are marbleized using a secret 18th-century technique that was resurrected by Faucon's grandfather, Joseph Bernard, in the early 1900s.

The Faience d'Apt plates, bowls, tureens, pitchers, platters, and coffee services in predominantly blue or brown clays, often trimmed in white. The pieces are finished with a clear glaze that reveals the clay's intricately swirled patterns. The technique is time-consuming and the production limited, An incomparable oval soup tureen, for example, in marbled brown or blue clays adorned with a lavish grape cluster decor requires ten stages of production, 50 man-hours, and can take three months to finish.