Review by Susan Gray Detweiler
Old Limoges: Haviland Porcelain Design and Décor: 1845–1865

Barbara Wood and Robert Doares. Old Limoges: Haviland Porcelain Design and Décor: 1845–1865. Atglen, Pa.: Schiffer, 2005. 272 pp.; 245+ color illus.; six appendixes including trademarks, reproductions of Haviland factory drawings, and contemporary documents; bibliography, index. Color photography by the authors. $59.95 (hardcover).

In Old Limoges Barbara Wood and Robert Doares of Williamsburg, Virginia, present a charming personal odyssey and highly useful reference work based on heretofore unpublished primary sources. The authors visited several institutions and archives in pursuit of documentation for the first decades of American entrepreneur David Haviland’s designs and production.^[1] Excitement spills over in their introduction as they recount an “adventure of discovery” that has reassigned many attributions for unmarked French porcelains from “Old Paris” to David Haviland’s first two decades of production at Limoges. As William G. Allman, White House Curator, states in the foreword, Old Limoges is “an important volume on the history of early Haviland and Limoges porcelain, in the hands of incredibly enthusiastic students of their subject.”

Correlating line drawings from a recently discovered factory book of shapes (preserved at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) with images in an album of painted and transfer-printed decoration (still owned by Haviland descendants) and designs in a portfolio in the archives of the modern Haviland firm, the authors have identified numerous early Haviland models, illustrating many of them with figures, vases, and teawares that they have acquired for that purpose. A fairly well-known catalog published in 1860 by the New York agency Haviland Brothers and Company facilitates attributions of table services, but “Vases, Figures, Rich Coffees, Candlesticks and an innumerable stock of Articles of Fancy” mentioned in publications associated with the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations at the Crystal Palace, which was held in New York in 1853, have remained largely unidentified until now.

The book’s seven chapters are essentially essays on a variety of topics. Chapter 1, “The Missing Haviland History,” is an informative account of the Haviland family and the permutations of their business partnerships. David Haviland immigrated to France in 1841 and settled in Limoges the following year. He began exporting French porcelains made by Pillivuyt and others to Haviland Brothers and Company, New York, and soon opened design studios for the decoration of whiteware manufactured by French firms to Haviland’s specifications for American taste and table customs. It was not until after 1853 that David Haviland became a licensed manufacturer of porcelain. Although the authors assert that his awareness of the superior quality and relatively low cost of French porcelain brought about the increase in demand, I suggest that status and fashion also contributed to market forces. French porcelain served the tables of many wealthy Americans at the end of the eighteenth century, and George Washington set the precedent for formal presidential dinners with his own Sèvres service.^[2] French porcelain was purchased by the government for state services during the Monroe, Jackson, and Polk administrations, years before David Haviland’s first trip to France.

Chapter 2 explains the relationship among the three design sources mentioned above, and chapter 3 discusses English (specifically Staffordshire) origins for several Haviland shapes. Transfer prints were incorporated into the family-held book of decoration. Among them is a view of the Fairmount Waterworks in Philadelphia, taken from W. H. Bartlett’s American Scenery (London, 1840), that also was used on a Staffordshire table service of the same period.^[3] With respect to borrowing English designs, the authors are wisely cautious about attributing pieces to Haviland based solely on near matches to the shapes in the factory documents when a common source could be the basis for similarity.^[4]

The Limoges context for Haviland design is treated extensively in chapter 4 and provides a succinct review of the development of the porcelain industry in the Limousin province and the companies that supplied Haviland with whiteware during the early years. The historical context is a prelude to a discussion in chapter 5 of the early Haviland decorating studio, which began operation in 1847. David Haviland led the modernization of the French porcelain industry and trained apprentice painters to comply with standardized designs, thereby lowering costs. Images of the earliest decorating studio and the later factory for the complete process of porcelain manufacture add historical interest and clearly illustrate the development of the Haviland firm over the twenty-year period under consideration.

Chapter 6 reviews Haviland’s participation in the 1853 New York Fair at the Crystal Palace and the Paris Exposition of 1855. In 1853 Haviland still decorated whiteware fabricated by other factories. His competition at the New York venue included the firm of Haughwout and Dailey of New York, who were, like Haviland, “engaged in decorating porcelain which is imported or manufactured for them.”^[5] Based on samples exhibited at the fair, Haughwout and Dailey were selected in 1853 by President Franklin Pierce to supply a state porcelain service comprising many shapes that had been created specifically to satisfy American table customs.^[6] Was there a business relationship between Haviland Brothers and Haughwout and Dailey? Or did Haughwout and Dailey follow Haviland’s lead in specifying forms to be “manufactured for them” in France?

The last chapter offers advice to collectors about searching for early, unmarked Haviland pieces, and the six appendixes include extremely useful reproductions of drawings and translations of contemporary documents for collectors and scholars (not that they are mutually exclusive!). Appendix A concerns the artists known to have worked at Haviland in the early years; appendix B translates an 1855 description of the Haviland factory; appendix C is an 1859 description of porcelain production and decoration at Alluaud and Haviland; appendix D is David Haviland’s application for a decorating patent in 1858; appendix E reproduces pages from the original factory design book at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, five drawings from the archives of Haviland, S.A., and a reproduction of the Haviland Brothers and Company catalog of 1860; appendix F illustrates the few early factory and retailer marks and includes a table of later printed marks. However, one mark that I have seen occasionally—“Haviland & Cie./ Limoges”—is omitted.

The shape book at the Metropolitan begins with number 284, so we can dream that the first 283 shapes will emerge in time for the authors’ proposed second volume on the earliest Haviland designs. We look forward to their continuing pursuit and the publication of more exciting discoveries.

Susan Gray Detweiler