Product Quality & Colors
TableIdeas sells first quality only, whether it is Gien France faience or fine
porcelain from Limoges, France. We do not sell seconds or rejects.
Every effort has been made to display colors as accurately as possible. As
the colors you see depend on your browser and monitor setting, we cannot
guarantee that the display on your monitor will be identical with the
original product's colors.
What is Gien Faience?
Faience is made of porous glazed pastes. These pastes are made up of
various earthenware clays, depending on the use of the final product.
That
is why Faience is also called earthenware. In Gien, a very fine textured
white paste is used for the faience which is dense, resonant and covered
in a transparent glaze, as brilliant as a crystal. The quality grade is
called "Fine Faience"
Vivid colors and the warm touch of the surface are a
characteristic of Faience, because of the low required firing temperature.
When fired, the glaze produces an opaque, white surface.
It's the ivory tone that is so characteristic of Gien France patterns.
For centuries faience has been appreciated for its warm colors and the
variety of its shapes. This makes many different decorative techniques and
styles possible.
The basic part of
the manufacturing process is largely mechanized (although it still depends
on the skill of the modelers for the originality and quality of the
plaster casts), the second stage is highly dependent on its craftsmen and
craftswomen whose personal touch give their character and originality to
each piece of Gien fine faience.
- The traditional
patterns of Gien France feature scalloped shapes and beautiful details on
handles, which are often hand painted.
- The contemporary Gien
patterns with their fine, even edges and forms enhance the modern, vivid
designs in brilliant hues. Many talented artists have designed for Gien
France.
- Gien Faience are usually on
ivory backgrounds. Many patterns feature varying designs so that each
plate is different
The Gien Faïence Factory
has mastered the techniques of hand-painting, hand-printing using
"engraved copper plates", serigraph printing and chromolithography (also
called transfers).
Special characteristics of
Gien Faience
As Gien France is a faience ceramic, not porcelain, spots or bubble marks on the underside are an inherent
feature of this material.
Small inclusions and roughness on the rims are also relatively common and
cannot be avoided.
Gien France dinnerware is an artisan production and
not a mass production china. Small variation of color, size, design and
shape occur naturally.
Customers of Gien France since 1821 actually prefer the individual
variations and irregularities as they show they are hand made to a certain
degree.
Gien France is a top quality faience bought and appreciated all over the
world.
More on the Spots
A special characteristic of Gien Faience is the "spots", pits or
bubble marks on the underside
of all plates and flat serving pieces. They come from firing the flat
pieces on so-called ladders, a rack that holds 10 plates or a few flat
items.
Earthenware is a form of
ceramics that has these small pits on all flat pieces.
They are unavoidable and the normal result of the artisan production
methods of Gien France Faience. These are not considered flaws but are first quality
earthenware. You can tell the true Gien faience from it.
The advantage is that the rims on the bottom of the pieces are glazed,
therefore smooth. They won't scratch your table or other plates easily.
Porcelaine plates, on the other hand, usually have an unglazed bottom rim,
on which they sit while being fired (instead of the "spots").
Artistic Creation of Gien Faience
The Artistic Creation Department is at the heart of Gien. It comes up with
new designs and looks for inspiration in the painted archives of the 19th
Century styles to remake historic pieces. Some of the most talented
designers develop its collections.
The three different product lines of the Gien collection:
Contemporary patterns, also called
'Coup de Coeur' (to fall in love with):
This range
includes coffee and tea services, dessert sets, breakfast sets, with a
wide variety of items and many shapes and styles. Now also complete dinner
services with all the serving pieces. Many gift ideas and accent pieces.
New patterns twice a year, bearing witness to the latest trends.
Traditional dinner services:
Earthenware table services inspired by styles from Rouen, Delft, and many
from the 19th century achieves of the Faienceries de Gien. Lots of
decorative gift ideas and accent pieces.
Art Faience and Gien Tradition:
Decorative pieces that are entirely hand
painted, collector's pieces, which embody the prestige and know-how of
Gien. Gien Tradition pieces are made as a part of limited series.
Gien Art Faience
and Gien Tradition
The Gien Faïence Company
has mastered the techniques of hand-painting, hand-printing using
"engraved copper plates", serigraph printing and chromolithography (also
called transfers).
These different processes
have opened up a whole range of styles, from the most traditional,
inspired by the old Gien archives, to the contemporary designed by
modern artists.
The Gien Tradition line is
a limited edition of Museum Reproductions. Tradition pieces are recreated
from molds and original designs in the archives of the Faienceries de
Gien. Each item is numbered, completely hand painted and signed by the
artist.
What is Porcelain?
Porcelain is a hard ceramic substance made by heating at high temperature
selected and refined materials often including clay in the form of kaolin.
Kaolin mixed with water forms a plastic paste which is worked to a
required shape or form. It is then hardened and made permanent by firing
in a kiln at temperatures of up to 1400 degrees Celsius.
This high temperature firing results in the toughness and durability, high
strength and resistance to thermal shock, whiteness, and translucence of
porcelain associated with French Limoges porcelain.
Porcelain is very durable and chip resistant. The white ceramics and
minerals are fired at high kiln temperatures, and make porcelain ideal for
fine dinnerware.
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