TOURS - Lot 175

Lot 175
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Estimation :
400 - 600 EUR
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TOURS - Lot 175
TOURS Oval glazed ceramic dish with a polychrome naturalistic decoration known as “rustic figuline,” modeled after Bernard Palissy (c. 1510–1590), depicting two lizards, one of which is devouring a dragonfly amid foliage. Chips and missing pieces. Signed on the reverse in intaglio: “Landaïs / Tours.” Circa 1850. L. 32 x W. 26 cm. History Joseph, known as Joseph Charles LANDAIS (1800–1883), naturalist and ceramist. Born to Joseph Landais, a merchant, and Marie-Rose Lemaire (or Lemaitre), Joseph Landais left his parents at age eleven to work in a earthenware factory in Saint Pierre-des-Corps (Indre-et-Loire). There he met Charles Jean Avisseau. When Avisseau moved to the Sarthe region, Joseph Landais repaired earthenware and porcelain and met a taxidermist who taught him how to prepare animal specimens. He would later call himself a naturalist and skillfully taxidermied birds. On June 17, 1822, he married Anne Françoise Avisseau in Tours, and four children were born from this union: in 1824, Anne Octavie Olympe, who would assist in the creation of certain works; in 1825, Augustine Rose, who would marry the painter Henri Grandin; in 1829, Charles Joseph; and in 1837, Maxime Victor. Tasked with restoring a dish by Bernard Palissy, he studied its manufacturing process and sought to claim credit for discovering the secret of Palissy’s glazes—a claim also made by Charles Jean Avisseau, with whom he had been in partnership since 1843; their partnership ended in 1846. Joseph Landais left No. 8 Rue Saint-Maurice and set up shop on Place Foire-le-Roi, then on Rue de la Scellerie, and finally on Rue René de Prie. Contemporary audiences recognized a certain superiority in Avisseau’s work, but Landais excelled in composition and color harmonies. In 1851, Joseph Landais was appointed “curator-caretaker” of the Tours Museum, a poorly paid position that the “president of the museum,” Villiers du Terrage, attempted—without much success—to improve. On March 30, 1865, he donated to the museum a collection of thirty-six birds, two mammals, and four “stuffed” reptiles.
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