The Henri Deux Line of the Owens Pottery Company

The story of Henri Deux (also known as Saint-Porchaire) pottery is a very interesting one, and well worth exploring. It was in the year 1839 that Mr. Andre Pottier, a French writer on art, first announced to the world the existence of a pottery known as "Henri-Deux". It was his opinion that it was the work of Florentine artists working in France. The name Henri Deux was given because the mark of that monarch was often seen in the background designs of the pieces. Until he brought it to the attention of connoisseurs, it's very existence had been forgotten. It soon became quite famous, and collectors everywhere scoured Europe for examples. It quickly became the most expensive pottery to change hands in Europe. It was not until the late 1860's that the mystery of it's origins became clear.

The pottery was produced between 1540 and 1560, in the Touraine region. At the court of King Francis lived a widow lady of high birth, named Helene De Hangest. Her husband had been governor of the King, and Grand-Master of France. She herself was a talented artist. Helene set up a pottery at her Chateau of Oiron, and hired Francis Charpentier to create pottery for her. The pieces produced by Charpentier were never placed for sale, but rather they were given as gifts by Lady Hangest.

The process of the creating of Henri Deux was difficult for the time. The bodies were made from terre de pipe, a white, delicate, and very light clay. The designs are deeply carved into the body, and then filled with a variety of colored clay. The mode in which the various clay are incorporated into the substance of the piece without shrinking or expanding during firing, as well as the thin smooth glaze applications were technological breakthroughs, and previously unknown in the west.

The forms were primarily salt-cellars, biberon-style baby bottles, ewers, candlesticks, and tazzas.

By 1897 a total of 53 pieces had been cataloged, a number which has not been increased in the intervening years. Most today reside in the Louvre, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and in the possession of the House of Rothschild. Each piece today is considered priceless.

From 1862 to about 1880, Minton of England created reproductions of Henri Deux pieces. This was done to prove that there was no feat too great for their artists. Two of the artists known were Charles Toft and Leon Amoux. These copies were displayed at the Philadelphia Exhibition in 1876.

With the fervor surrounding the Henri Deux in the minds of the followers of ceramic art, Owens Pottery elected to create a line to capitalize on that interest. They claimed that their pottery were reproductions of Henri Deux, but this was simply not true. The forms were designed to somewhat resemble the style, but the designs were crude representations of something having a passing similarity to the subject matter mixed with art nouveau motifs of the time. The only true claim was the mode of creation, the Owens Henri Duex had incised designs, but rather than being filled with colored clay as the original, it was under-glaze painted with colored slip.

There are only about a dozen or so designs known of the Owens Henri Deux, with no extant catalogs to indicate what was actually produced. Introduced in 1900, it was quickly discontinued, likely due to the way the slip colors tend to splinter and flake away. Finding examples today is difficult, and finding pieces retaining most of their slip coloring is doubly so.