Washerwoman Match Holder

Thomas Victor Sergent (1834–1906), who frequently characterized himself as a “fabricant de faïences artistiques” or manufacturer of artistic earthenwares, was celebrated for his craft during his lifetime. While his ceramics are still sought after today, he has been little researched and his full body work is not well-known. Sergeant seems to have spent his childhood in Brittany, in northwest France, he was born in the small town of Iffendic but only two years later he is recorded living with his parents in Quimper, a city known for its long history as well as its tin-glazed earthenware industry. At the age of 17 he joined the French army and would serve until 1866 or 1867. He was living in Paris shortly after he left the army, where he was initially a bookseller and where he married Marguerite Pauline Ponée (1849–1919) in 1867. Marguerite Pauline's father Claude was a potter and her uncle and cousin, Victor and Achille Barbizet, were also important ceramicists in this period. With assistance from his wife and her family Thomas Sergent soon embarked on a significant career as a ceramic manufacturer, a path he would follow until the early 1890s. His Paris-based company regularly participated in regional and international exhibitions, including the world’s fairs in Vienna in 1873, London in 1874, Philadelphia in 1876, and Paris in 1878, likely in part to gain greater recognition and sales, especially on an international basis.

While Sergent’s firm is most well-known today for its production of dishes and other forms that feature depictions of reptiles, fish, and other aquatic life – its wares in the so-called Palissy-revival style – the firm created a range of other products like this figural match holder. These are often sensitively modeled and skillfully glazed, as we see in this example. Sergent seems to have created a series of figural match holders which feature picturesque depictions of workers including the washerwoman and a flower seller. In fact, figures like these, depicting workers and street venders, were a well-established tradition in European ceramics – such figures had been introduced by a range of European manufacturers in the 18th century.

This match holder also indicates the increasingly global market for luxury goods for middle class markets that grew up in the 19th century. It bears a partial label for Jones, McDuffee & Stratton, an important Boston-based retailer and wholesaler of ceramics and glass, that succeeded its predecessor Howland & Jones in 1871. The firm sold a wide range of products sourced from European and Asian manufacturers, including leading British factories like Minton, Wedgwood, and Royal Worcester, as well as French makers, such as several porcelain factories located in Limoges. Later 19th-century and 20th-century pieces made for this firm incorporate the firm’s name as part of the mark applied at the factory. At least a few pieces from slightly earlier, the 1870s and 1880s, have retained paper labels like the one that the washerwoman match holder bears.

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Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.

Collection of Deborah and Philip English, Baltimore, by 2022, [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; given to the Walters Art Museum, 2024.