The French Country Table: Pottery and Faience of Provence

Symbols of the warmth of home life and the time-honored artisan tradition, l'art de la table, or "table art," comes from two sister crafts: pottery and faience. One rustic and earthen, the other the very picture of refinement, both have played a fundamental role in the expression of French culture from rural life to the high court at Versailles. This lushly photographed book takes the reader on a sun-soaked journey to the craft's ancestral home of Provence, in the South of France, to view the fascinating process of creation involved in these cherished crafts.

Filled with fascinating historical anecdotes, this thoroughly researched book goes inside the centuries-old ateliers of Provence to examine the making of pottery and faience from the cultivating of clay and its shaping at the potter's wheel to the kilns, painted decoration, and more. This lovely book offers not only a close-up look at this world-renowned craft but also a moving portrait of life in Provence.

Bernard Duplessy is an expert on the history, literature, cuisine, and architecture of Provence. He is the author of several historical novels set in the region, and several cookbooks. Camille Moirenc is originally from Aix-en-Provence, France, where he has been a photographer for over a decade. His photographs can be seen in more than a dozen published works on the South of France.