Potters in Anduze

Arts and craft industry : a Legendary Vase in Anduze.

Potters in Anduze France

He would almost certainly never have imagined that one day his vases would end up in gardens all around the world and that his tiny village of Anduze in France’s Gard region would become synonymous with a fascinating ancestral tradition.

With a single stroke, the pottery genius Boisset succeeded in sweeping aside convention and making the Anduze vase a decorative legend. According to popular tradition, during the Renaissance period a potter from Anduze who had been visiting the Beaucaire fair stopped dead in his tracks when he saw an Italian vase from the Medici period decorated with garlands, fruit and fl owers. Amazed by the delicacy and beauty of the vase, he headed back to his workshop determined that he too would create a luxury item with his own hands, intended for purely decorative purposes. Back in those days, life in the Cévennes area was one of hard work, with no time for superfluous decor or fantasy. The brainchild of the potter Boisset was rather odd, but it nevertheless took shape with the creation of “the”Anduze vase, a circular model featuring somewhat thick edges, elegantly decorated with a garland sporting three festoons and badges. A legendary item was born, and one which would quickly go on to become the darling of the great and the good at the court of Louis XIV.

Fire and earth

Whether blue, green or brown, over time new colours appeared but the production process for the famous Anduze vase remained unchanged. Even if they have today been joined by other potters who have set up shop in the area, as heirs to a remarkable tradition Boisset’s descendants carry on the work of those who came before them, and every year some 400 tonnes of dense, ochre clay is extracted from the quarry on the family property. This clay is mixed until ready for use. It is then that the skill and know-how of the potter really comes into its own, including the shaping of the vase or adjustments to the garland and the badge, making each item truly unique. The different stages follow in quick succession including the d ying time, the slip coating (the vase is coated with a layer of white clay known as “slip” aimed at cancelling out the red colour of the Anduze clay) followed by a further drying session. Then the potter works his magic, busily applying a range of colours and shades which can only be appreciated once the vase has undergone its “baptism of fi re”: being baked for 24 hours in an oven at 1000°. It emerges completely transformed, an attractive mottled combination of colours and sheens. It is this craftsman-made production process that has guaranteed the fame and reputation of a vase which, when old, is always highly sought after by antique dealers or decorators.

The Anduze vase combines Florentine extravagance tempered by typical Cévennes austerity….

An art in its own right!

Today, the Anduze vase, greatly prized by antiques dealers and interior decorators, is still produced using traditional techniques by the "Madeleine" potteries - Website.
Tél. : + 33 (0)4 66 61 63 44

Anduze Tourist Office - Tél. : + 33 (0)4 66 61 98 17.