Faïence Et Vin De La Table Du Prince À La Taverne Du Peuple, 1640-1863

In both cases, it is thanks to the ancestral and empirical knowledge of the properties of the soil and the grape varieties, combined with the delicate mastery of technical and physico-chemical constraints with complex interactions, that man achieves, in the long term, the domination of nature. This faculty enables him to carry out the almost alchemical transmutation of natural elements into consumer products intended to satisfy habits and tastes, revealing the characteristics of society and fashion at a given time. For François Rabelais, as for Ernest Hemingway, "wine is the most civilised thing in the world".

This publication highlights the way in which faience, through its forms and decorations, reflects the sociological evolution of wine consumption in France from the 17th century until the advent of industrial society, and more precisely from 1640, the date of the official appearance of the word "faience", to 1863, the date of the first appearance of phylloxera.