page_title: Rouen faience
section_title: Rouen faience
hierarchical_section_title: Rouen faience / Rouen faience
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Histoire du déluge&#160;: arrivée au Mont Ararat de Masséot Abaquesne, 1550. Il s'agit d'une faïence, ici l'un des trois panneaux exposé au Musée national de la Renaissance d'Ecouen.
context_page_description: The city of Rouen, Normandy has been a centre for the production of faience or tin-glazed earthenware pottery, since at least the 1540s. Unlike Nevers faience, where the earliest potters were immigrants from Italy, who at first continued to make wares in Italian maiolica styles with Italian methods, Rouen faience was essentially French in inspiration, though later influenced by East Asian porcelain. As at Nevers, a number of styles were developed and several were made at the same periods.
  The earliest pottery, starting in the 1540s, specialized in large patterns and images made up of coloured tiles. A century later the king granted a fifty-year monopoly, and a factory was established by 1647. The wares this made are now hard to distinguish from those of other centres, but the business was evidently successful. When the monopoly expired in 1697 a number of new factories opened, and Rouen's finest period began, lasting until about the mid-century. The decoration of the best Rouen faience was very well-executed, with intricate designs in several styles, typically centred on ornament, with relatively small figures, if any.
caption: Noah's Ark landed on Mount Ararat, tile panel by Masséot Abaquesne, 1550.
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