Linked to the history of Nevers, a major earthenware centre since the 16th century, the museum's main collection is that of ceramics. The largest room in the museum is devoted to this exceptional collection. The wide range of works on display reflects the richness of the company's production. The works on display, from the 16th to the 20th centuries, reveal a whole section of the history of an art form, an economic activity and also a society. A courtly art form in the 16th and 17th centuries, earthenware was first used in middle-class homes and then in working-class homes in the 18th and 19th centuries. Large ornamental dishes, paving tiles, decorated bottles, statues, decorative plaques and unusual objects tell the story of this epic blend of history, technique and art.
To help visitors get to grips with the techniques involved in making high-fire earthenware, one room features an educational display case with objects used in its manufacture. A video presented by the earthenware makers still working in Nevers also completes the exhibition.
This collection is complemented by a collection of enamelled glass, the only one of its kind in Europe. This glass collection is the largest in Europe, and comes mainly from the Loynel d'Estrie Collection, deposited by the Musée du Louvre in Nevers in 1998.
It is unique in terms of both the number of pieces and the diversity of its iconography. An unusual collection, it provides an insight into a craft that was highly prized in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but which has now been lost.
Nevers, where master enamellers were trained, was the ideal place to showcase these boxes and figurines. Fascinating in terms of the variety of subjects covered, from genre scenes to religious scenes, and in terms of quality.
