La Poterie du Mesnil de Bavent
Le Mesnil de Bavent, RD 513 Caen-Cabourg, 14860 Bavent
177years of history
The story of the Poterie du Mesnil de Bavent and its artistic branch has been closely linked to the economical history of the Calvados region of Normandy. The pottery has gone through some fluctuations due to international upheavals and the regional changes over its history, but through all this it has remained virtually unchanged which is perhaps surprising, as this pottery goes a long way back in history.
From as early as the 15th Century, potters where already working the huge clay seam of Bavent, producing kitchen and other utensils. The area around the village of Bavent continued as a centre of small potters until in 1842, Maurice Comptet-Nérat, an industrialist from Mâcon interested by the richness of the clay seam, created a factory for the “mass production” of tiles, flower pots and decorative architectural ornaments.
Mr Comptet resurrected the production of finials which had flourished in the region since the early 13th Century. The first finials had been a pot turned upside down to cover the wooden key post of the roof. However the nature of potters being inventive, the pot soon became a very decorative feature - full of symbolism, both religious and political, over the following centuries.
The pottery changed hands several times in the 19th century, going from Mr Comptet to Mr Le Batard, Mr Jacquier then Mr Valin all of whom enlarged and promoted the name of the pottery. Mr Jacquier was from a well known family of sculptors, and during the time the pottery was in his hands, thanks to the artists he invited to work at the pottery, the collection of life sized animals became an important part of production. He also managed to have a finial designed and made for the famous L’Exposition Universelle of 1889 where it was installed on the Maison Romane.
In 1931, Mr Dupont, took over the pottery. This exceptional engineer and businessman gave the pottery a new lease of life by modernising the old machinery. A small flat tile was produced and was a great success with the public and architects alike. The whole pottery was considerably developed finials and the Norman tiles experienced a golden age which ended abruptly at the beginning of the the war in 1939. During the occupation the work went on slowly, only to come to a stop on the 6th June 1944, date of the D-Day landings on the Normandy beaches. The violent battles that occurred in the region resulted in much damage to the buildings (gun shot holes are still visible in the buildings and through some of the statues and finials on site) and the factory installations were also badly damaged, only to start up again in June 1945. However by January 1946, 1000 tons of tiles were being produced a month. At this time the artistic part of the pottery where the finials and animals were made, had also come back into its own with one of the potters winning a national prize – Meilleur Ouvrier de France for Bruno Dubosq.
In 1966, after Mr Dupont’s death, his widow took over the direction of the business but she soon sold the pottery to a group of businessmen from Caen. Mrs Dupont kept some interest in the artistic workshop and it was only a few years later, when she retired that no artistic direction was left and the workshop fell into mediocrity.
In 1987 the business was sold to the Lambert Company who were only interested in the tile production. The pottery at this time was separated into two separate entities: tile factory and pottery. The artistic pottery workshop was put into liquidation. At that time, Martine Kay-Mouat, who herself had been an artist in residence at the pottery in the 1960s, decided to save it and its historic production of finials. Saving at the same time the jobs of the specialised craftsmen and their unique know how, gained from several generations of family potters. Soon after, Dominique Kay-Mouat, one of her daughters, joined the pottery and transformed the site into a place of cultural and artistic exchange with concerts, the opening of two museums, an exhibition space for contemporary art and sculpture and a separate studio for artists in residence to come and use in exchange for demonstrations and lessons for the public.
There have been some hard times because of the economic climate in France, the two Gulf Wars and other world events affecting world economy. However, the pottery with its talented team of craftsmen and women, forges forward to promote their fabulous finials and other varied creations with lots of energy and boundless enthusiasm. This living heritage and hard work was in 2007 rewarded by the recognition “Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant” a label for its outstanding craftsmanship and “savoir-faire”(renewed in 2012 and again in 2017.
Tags
Édifice industriel, scientifique et technique
© Poterie de Bavent
