This Website and contents are the property of the Anduze Vase Company unauthorised copying and use is prohibited
The History of Vases d'Anduze

Return to Main Page

New vase d'Anduze

The first Vases' d 'Anduze appeared in the sixteenth century. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries these large vases only appeared in the gardens of the french landed gentry, however in the nineteenth century, the wealthy families of the local silk merchants in the Anduze region began planning attractive gardens and adopted the orange tree, which was previously only seen in the royal glasshouses. The orange trees were planted in Anduze vases as the trees would need to be protected from frost in the winter, and brought inside. As a result they quickly became popular throughout the region.

Legend has it that a potter from Anduze in the Cevennes region of southern France was inspired by italian medici vases which he saw at the fair of Beaucaire, these vases where decorated with garlands, fruit and flowers.

The Anduze Vase has not always had an easy life:- although intended to be brought indoors for the winter, they were often forgotten and left out in the garden. They survived the winter with their elegance intact, but the glaze was often seriously flaked & cracked by the frost. This gave a marvellous patina which relates the passage of time, and is recreated today by the families of those original potters, in the form of the antiqued vase d'Anduze, where the vase is aged to appear hundreds of years old. Alternatively the potters are still making the original drip glazed vase d'Anduze of the seventeenth century, "aux coulers de soleil".

 

Vase d'Anduze made in 1809
Planted vase d'Anduze made in 1892