{"id":984,"date":"2018-02-07T10:16:50","date_gmt":"2018-02-07T10:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/illuminating-objects\/?page_id=984"},"modified":"2018-02-15T11:32:40","modified_gmt":"2018-02-15T11:32:40","slug":"ceramics-of-saintonge","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/illuminating-objects\/puzzle-jug\/ceramics-of-saintonge\/","title":{"rendered":"Ceramics of Saintonge"},"content":{"rendered":"

This jug was made in the 17th century in Saintonge in south-western France, a region renowned for its pottery industry from the late Middle Ages. Initially, the workshops produced high-quality ceramics for the religious and secular elite.<\/p>\n

From the mid-seventeenth century colonial trade increased demand for Saintonge ceramics to be exported. Archaeologists have found a proliferation of kilns in the region dating to the late seventeenth and eighteenth-centuries. As production grew in scale, it affected the quality of the pieces to cater to a more diverse range of clients.<\/p>\n

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Map of the main pottery centres of Saintonge, showing kiln sites. . Reproduced in Potiers de Saintonge by Jean Chapelot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Courtauld’s puzzle jug is typical of the larger production scale of the late period of Saintonge pottery. The medallions decorating the exterior of the jug, for example, were pre-fabricated by being pressed into moulds, and were then applied to the body of the jug when the clay was leather-dry. These medallions appear on many known pieces of the period.<\/p>\n\n