GROTESQUERIES Form, Fantasy and Function in 19th Century European Ceramics : The Collection of Brooke Hayward Duchin

Published by the New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1997. First edition, limited to 2500 copies, so stated. Softcover, illustrated blue wraps, 11" x 8.5", 52 pages, beautifully illustrated throughout with over 30 full color photographs of the exquisite decorative pieces. The catalogue includes superb examples of French and Portuguese Palissy wares as well as English and American majolica, and a selected chronology 1590-1930. VERY GOOD CONDITION: a few light bumps to the spine, light shelf and edge wear to the covers, internally tight, bright, clean and unmarked. A lovey and uncommon catalogue.

French Renaissance master Bernard Palissy (c. 1510-1589) decorated his ceramics with trompe l'oeil flora and fauna including serpents, reptiles, shells, and amphibians cast from life. His art revolutionized the field of ceramics. Centuries later, 19th century potters rediscovered Palissy's techniques and inspired by the radical modern visions of nature, utopian fantasy, and science fiction of the times, created their own cabinet of curiosities in clay. Palissy died imprisoned at the Bastille because his religious beliefs did not align with the French governments, he was a Protestant.