Making a Porcelain Pilgrimage to Aixe-sur-Vienne (Outside Limoges, France) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
Every time my family heads towards the South of France on vacation, we stop at Aixe-sur-Vienne located west of Limoges to shop for porcelain. Porcelain is pricy, but the Maison de la Porcelaine allows you to buy pieces direct from the factory, which keeps prices lower than you would pay for porcelain on rue du Paradis in Paris.
Aixe-sur-Vienne is a visual treat. You can walk along the Vienne River in a park by the Maison de la Porcelaine and visit the town, which lies along a pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostella in Spain according to the France This Way website.
The Maison de la Porcelaine is the main tourism draw in town, though. The store offers free factory tours (in French) with most of their commentary summarized under links to porcelain’s history and manufacture on their webpage, which is available in English.
The story of porcelain in the Limousin is a story of kaolin. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, kaolin is a “soft white clay used in the making of porcelain.” The clay is named after the Chinese hill where it was mined called kao-ling. The Chinese began to use kaolin to create porcelain during the T’ang Dynasty (AD 618 – 907).
The Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama (1460 or 1469 – 1524) helped create the craze for porcelain among emperors and heads of state when he opened the route to India and China after 1498.
According to the Maison de la Porcelaine website, Portugal, Holland, England, and France all competed for the right to import porcelain, which had become a highly sought after luxury good.
While they were importing Chinese porcelain, European countries were also trying to make their own versions of porcelain during the Renaissance. The Italians and French came closest to succeeding with their “soft paste” porcelain. Soft paste porcelain was not durable and lacked the sheen and luminosity of Chinese porcelain.
The Encyclopedia Britannica credits a French Jesuit missionary with introducing Europe to kaolin as the ingredient that made Chinese porcelain special around 1700.
In 1707, a German alchemist named Bรถttger discovered a deposit of kaolin at Meissen outside modern-day Dresden, Germany. He made the first “hard paste” porcelain with this clay. Saxony, where Meissen is located, was able to guard the secret of porcelain fabrication by draconian means until 1767 when “hard paste” porcelain was produced in Limoges.
A large-scale porcelain industry was begun in Limoges in 1771 under the direction of the minister Turgot. This marked the birth of porcelain production as we know it in Limoges today.
Limoges porcelain is made with kaolin (55%), quartz (20%), and feldspar (25%). It goes through at least two firings, usually three, to obtain the sheen we associate with Limoges porcelain.
The last time we were at the Maison de la Porcelaine, we bought a teapot, chocolate pot, cheese plates, and a butter dish. The plates had been made with a jollying or jiggering process used to make round objects on a spinning base. The teapot, chocolate pot, and butter dish were all made with a casting process whereby the “paste” is pour into a hollow mold leaving a thin layer of paste on the surface of the mold.
There is a difference in shape among a teapot, chocolate pot, and a coffee server. Teapots are usually short and round, but if they are tall, they should have a wide and round base. The spout is found midway up the side of the pot.
Chocolate pots are tall and somewhat slender with a small spout at the top.
Coffee servers are tall and slender. Coffee server spouts are placed at the bottom of a pot to retain the heat.
I have included a photo of a tall teapot. I use a moka pot for coffee. (Another blog topic!).
By Ruth Paget - Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
Every time my family heads towards the South of France on vacation, we stop at Aixe-sur-Vienne located west of Limoges to shop for porcelain. Porcelain is pricy, but the Maison de la Porcelaine allows you to buy pieces direct from the factory, which keeps prices lower than you would pay for porcelain on rue du Paradis in Paris.
Aixe-sur-Vienne is a visual treat. You can walk along the Vienne River in a park by the Maison de la Porcelaine and visit the town, which lies along a pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostella in Spain according to the France This Way website.
The Maison de la Porcelaine is the main tourism draw in town, though. The store offers free factory tours (in French) with most of their commentary summarized under links to porcelain’s history and manufacture on their webpage, which is available in English.
The story of porcelain in the Limousin is a story of kaolin. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, kaolin is a “soft white clay used in the making of porcelain.” The clay is named after the Chinese hill where it was mined called kao-ling. The Chinese began to use kaolin to create porcelain during the T’ang Dynasty (AD 618 – 907).
The Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama (1460 or 1469 – 1524) helped create the craze for porcelain among emperors and heads of state when he opened the route to India and China after 1498.
According to the Maison de la Porcelaine website, Portugal, Holland, England, and France all competed for the right to import porcelain, which had become a highly sought after luxury good.
While they were importing Chinese porcelain, European countries were also trying to make their own versions of porcelain during the Renaissance. The Italians and French came closest to succeeding with their “soft paste” porcelain. Soft paste porcelain was not durable and lacked the sheen and luminosity of Chinese porcelain.
The Encyclopedia Britannica credits a French Jesuit missionary with introducing Europe to kaolin as the ingredient that made Chinese porcelain special around 1700.
In 1707, a German alchemist named Bรถttger discovered a deposit of kaolin at Meissen outside modern-day Dresden, Germany. He made the first “hard paste” porcelain with this clay. Saxony, where Meissen is located, was able to guard the secret of porcelain fabrication by draconian means until 1767 when “hard paste” porcelain was produced in Limoges.
A large-scale porcelain industry was begun in Limoges in 1771 under the direction of the minister Turgot. This marked the birth of porcelain production as we know it in Limoges today.
Limoges porcelain is made with kaolin (55%), quartz (20%), and feldspar (25%). It goes through at least two firings, usually three, to obtain the sheen we associate with Limoges porcelain.
The last time we were at the Maison de la Porcelaine, we bought a teapot, chocolate pot, cheese plates, and a butter dish. The plates had been made with a jollying or jiggering process used to make round objects on a spinning base. The teapot, chocolate pot, and butter dish were all made with a casting process whereby the “paste” is pour into a hollow mold leaving a thin layer of paste on the surface of the mold.
There is a difference in shape among a teapot, chocolate pot, and a coffee server. Teapots are usually short and round, but if they are tall, they should have a wide and round base. The spout is found midway up the side of the pot.
Chocolate pots are tall and somewhat slender with a small spout at the top.
Coffee servers are tall and slender. Coffee server spouts are placed at the bottom of a pot to retain the heat.
I have included a photo of a tall teapot. I use a moka pot for coffee. (Another blog topic!).
By Ruth Paget - Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
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| Photo by Ruth Paget |
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| Ruth Paget Selfie |
