Pâte-sur-pâte

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Pâte-sur-pâte (a French term meaning "paste on paste") is a method of porcelain decoration in which a relief design is created on an unfired, unglazed body by applying successive layers of white slip (liquid clay) with a brush. The effect is somewhat similar to other types of of relief decoration such as Jasperware, but as a mould is not normally used, the artist is able to achieve translucency.

To understand pâte-sur-pâte fully, we need to go back to France in the 1850s, and an accident that occurred at the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres. They were trying to reproduce a decorative technique from a Chinese vase, but misinterpreting the vase, the experiment took them along an altogether different path from the Chinese potter. Be it luck or fate they perfected what became universally known as pâte-sur-pâte.

You cannot talk about pâte-sur-pâte without mentioning the name Solon, for it was this man who perfected the technique and was for most of his working life the leading exponent of the art; his works are today still regarded as the benchmark.

Louis Marc Solon was born in France in 1835 and from an early age developed a considerable talent for art, although it is thought his father wanted the young Solon to pursue a career in the legal profession. Some of his early designs were dismissed, such was the academic thinking of the day; however some of Solon's work later fell to the attention of the art director of Sèvres and he was soon after employed as a ceramic artist and designer. He was tasked along with H Regnault and Gelly to work upon the pâte-sur-pâte process which was still only at the trial stage. Left alone to perfect their skills, the artists at Sèvres reached a hitherto unheard of quality in their pottery. Praising the facilities of the day, Solon commented that "We were never limited as to time and cost", a luxury in any industry. Solon also began to produce pieces of pâte-sur-pâte in his own time under the name Miles, said to be based on his initials M L S. There are a number of these in the Victoria and Albert Museum's collection, as well as in the collection of the former Minton Museum. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 led Solon to flee his native country and seek refuge in England, where he established contact with Colin Minton Campbell of Mintons Ltd, Stoke-on-Trent.

Mintons had a history of employing foreign artists. Its first Frenchman arrived in 1848, the art director Léon Arnoux, so with the arrival of Solon and other French artists such as the sculptor Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse the firm had its own French community. Solon settled in Stoke-on-Trent, married Arnoux's daughter and took on Engish apprentices including Frederick Alfred Rhead. There ensued a golden age of pâte-sur-pâte in Stoke-on-Trent stretching into the early years of the 20th century. Other English firms experimented with pate-sur-pate and there was some American production at University City, Missouri, but Minton remained the main producer despite financial problems at the beginning of the twentieth century.

With Solon's death in 1913 and the advent of the First World War, an era had ended for pâte-sur-pâte. After the War its popularity declined like other nineteenth-century fashions. However, there was still some demand, and Minton continued to produce pate-sur-pate until the outbreak of the Second World War, when the production of decorated ceramics was severely curtailed. There was some discussion of reviving the production after the Second World War, but with the passing away of Solon's apprentices, the possibility of finding suitable artists became more difficult. It was not until 1992 that Minton used the technique once more in order to mark the firm's bicentenary. The result was a small number of vases, produced to some degree of success, these later vases being reproductions of earlier pieces by Alboin Birks, a gifted apprentice of Solon, who used moulds to speed production and combat costs. Given the deindustrialization of Stoke-on-Trent in recent years, the 1992 revival of pâte-sur-pâte can be seen as Minton's swansong.

[edit] External links

Pate Sur Pate artist Dale Bowen website
Famous Potters of Stoke-on-Trent - Thomas Minton
Pâte-sur-pâte page at thepotteries.org
Stoke-on-Trent Museums [1](including items from the former Minton Museum collection). Using the search facility [2] on the Museums´ website, you can bring up images of pâte-sur-pâte if you type in the keyword "Solon".