21 et 22 septembre 2024

Passat

Inscripcion

02 31 84 82 41

Setembre 2024

Dissabte 21
- 10:00 - 12:00
- 14:00 - 18:00
Dimenge 22
- 10:00 - 12:00
- 14:00 - 18:00

La Poterie du Mesnil de Bavent

5 côte du Mesnil, 14860 Bavent

Calvados

Normandie

Guided tour of the Pottery

Name: Visite guidée de la Poterie
Start: 2024-09-21T10:00:00+02:00
End: 2024-09-22T18:00:00+02:00
Location: La Poterie du Mesnil de Bavent

As part of the JEP 2024, whose theme this year is "Heritage of the routes" La Poterie du Mesnil de Bavent, specializing in the manufacture of spikes of ridges and decorations in ceramics.

21 et 22 septembre 2024

Passat

Inscripcion

02 31 84 82 41

Propriété de La Poterie du Mesnil de Bavent

As part of the JEP 2024, whose theme this year is "Heritage of the routes" The Pottery of Mesnil de Bavent, specializing in the manufacture of ears of ridge and ceramic decorations that are part of our regional heritage, is fully in this theme, who has not noticed and admired the villas and other residences located along our coast from Honfleur to Courseulles-sur-Mer and much further.
For JEP 2024 we will open our doors to the general public to discover our know-how recognized by different labels such as that of «Master craftsman».
La Poterie du Mesnil de Bavent has participated in the JEP for several years. This year with «Le Village de la Poterie» and its craftsmen of crafts we will open our doors and workshops on our historic site and make this event a real heritage festival
During this weekend we propose
Saturday and Sunday
Free guided tours of our workshops.
These visits will be a rare moment in the life of the company, which opens the doors of its workshops on rare occasions, and this is the opportunity to discover our profession that we practice for more than 182 years, the working methods have not changed since the company was founded.

Setembre 2024

Dissabte 21
- 10:00 - 12:00
- 14:00 - 18:00
Dimenge 22
- 10:00 - 12:00
- 14:00 - 18:00

Informations additionnelles

Types d'événement

Visite commentée

Thèmes 2024

Patrimoines des itinéraires, des réseaux et des connexions

I agree that the image may be freely used, provided that it is attributed to the author by name and shared under the same conditions.

Conditions de participation

Gratuit, Réservation obligatoire

Type de public

Tout public

pass Culture

Pas cap seleccion

À propos du lieu

Suggérer une modification sur le lieu

La Poterie du Mesnil de Bavent

5 côte du Mesnil, 14860 Bavent

Calvados

Normandie

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.

Etiquetas

Patrimoine ferroviaire, des transports et du génie civil

Accès

Parking on site

UID

Inscripcion

Setembre 2024

Geführte Tour durch die Töpferei

Inscripcion

Guided tour of the Pottery

Inscripcion

Visita guidata della Ceramica

Inscripcion

Visite guidée de la Poterie

Inscripcion

Visita guiada a la Alfarería

Inscripcion

Setembre 2024