“The bird,” in French, is “l’oiseau”—and that is what this French Art Nouveau wine jug is sometimes called in its home country. Made by Pierrefonds in the early Twentieth Century, it possesses the heavily-encrusted crystallization for which this ceramics workshop is well-known. Many a French household would have served table wine in a jug like this—with its little bird-beak optimistically raised.
Pierrefonds is a small village 57 miles northeast of Paris. It is best known for its fine (and picturesque) Medieval château. Amongst art pottery lovers, it is known also for its beautiful vases, bowls, and jugs. The workshop was founded in 1903 by The Count Hallez d’Arros and called Société Faiencière Héraldique de Pierrefonds. Ceramicist Olivier de Sorra provided the company’s artistic direction.
Please click on the photo above to learn more about this piece (before l’oiseau flies away!).