Ecole de Fontainebleau , Late 1800’s

Jean-Marie Pointu was one of a few who fabricated, designed and painted French barbotine in gros relief (large or high relief), particularly floral and foliate relief in the Impressionist style.  The forms and their decoration are of an extreme variety.  The time and work to finish one realistic flower, let alone several, was arduous ,painstaking, and required extremely fine artistic talent.  The Kaolin clay was manipulated to a paper thin fineness, formed into layers of floral petals and leaves, colored and sometimes fired before applying more colors, applied to a vessel , glazed and fired.  During the firing, months of work could be ruined if one was not using the utmost caution. The process would then need to start over.
This massive vase has ground colors of pale greens fading into a dark green/black. The high relief flowers are depicted in stages from buds to completely open flowers, almost past their prime—a technique extremely difficult to accomplish with wet clay.

This magnificent vase will be a wonderful addition to any French barbotine collection. Condition:  Minor rubs to top rim under metal liner.