Occasionally a quite insignificant find can open an opportunity to add to our subject knowledge and add an extra significance to our purchase. Keith Owen did just that when he purchased a terracotta butter dish (FIG 10), identified as Pratt through its form and decoration. It carried a back stamp, printed in black and white with the wording ‘Le Grande Depot’. Were Pratt’s exporting to France and selling their wares in an outlet’, Le Grand Depot’? Keith is never one to simply put his find on the self; he wanted to know more. The following is a précis of material he found and subsequently passed on to me. |
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“Emile Bourgeois was born 25 th September 1832 in La Neuve Lyre, Normandy, son of a builder, his mother a dress maker. In 1848 at the age of sixteen, he went to work as a clerk in a china shop in Paris. In 1856 he moved to London where he taught French and learnt English. There is the suggestion that he acted, as buyer for his Parisian employer but this is only speculation. In 1860 Gladstone’s government moved to establish a commercial free trade treaty with France. Whilst in London Emile Bourgeois got a job as a salesman for the major manufacturers of English earthenware and so returned to Paris in hope of finding commercial mileage in selling English earthenware to the French. His task proved as difficult as selling British Beef now. The French said: “ non”; he failed to convince the French retailers of the superiority of the English product. One retailer apparently told him the only things worth importing from England were biscuits and razors. He, however, was convinced that the quality of English earthenware was what the French housewife would appreciate, so at the age of thirty in 1862 he took an eighteen year lease on 21 Rue Drouot and opened ‘Le Grand Depot’ becoming the exclusive importer for Minton, Copeland, Wedgewood & Brown, Westhead & Moore. He claimed to represent seventy-eight English manufacturers of ‘terre de fer’ (earthenware) and porcelain. |
The building is still their; high above the entrance sign, faintly visible, reads ‘ Le Grand Depot, Maison Fondee in 1863 by E Bourgeois’. The building now houses a conglomeration of small shops.
Within five years he was a wealthy man, his success due in part to his selling technique. The building was imposing, with ‘in your face’ advertising and a catalogue illustrating his wares that he sold for 10 francs. Was this the start of mail order catalogue selling? With an order, the cost of the catalogue was refunded. Apparently anything between 2,000 and 10,000 complete services were always in stock and available for delivery within 24 hours of an order being received.
One advert in the catalogue claimed that the English ewers and basins revolutionised the hygienic toilette habits of the French. The huge jugs and giant bowls allowed for much mire vigorous ablutions compared with the more modest size jugs and bowls they were used to.
In 1877, Bourgeois applied for a stand in the Universal Exposition of 1878 and was turned down because he was not a manufacturer but and agent for the foreign products. He argued that his foreign products were only to awaken artist’s competition. With “entente cordiale” quickly forgotten, he agreed to exhibit on French wares and was subsequently allowed to exhibit. He continued to import British wares and even sent pieces of French porcelain, Old Rouen, Strasbourg and Chantilly, to English manufacturers so they could be copied exclusively for him.
In 1890 he bought the building at 21-23 Rue Drouot for 900,000 francs and five years later retired back to La Neuve-Lyre. He died on 17 November 1926 aged 94 years. In 1927, ‘Le Grand Depot’ was sold for 777,382 francs. His biographer wrote, “Three words made his fortune – ‘terre de fer’ (earthenware).
Do you have other examples with the Le Grand Depot stamped on the back? Let the Pot Lid Circle know.
Next time I go into a French antique shop I will look beyond the religious artefacts and general rusting junk and see if I can find a piece marked ‘ Le Grande Depot’!