Musée de la Faïence de Marseille

Musée de la Faïence

Location within France
Location	Marseille, 8th Arrondissement, France
Coordinates	43°14′01″N 5°22′24″E / 43.233528°N 5.373444°E / 43.233528; 5.373444
Type	Pottery from Marseille
Collection size	1500 pieces

The Musée de la Faïence de Marseille is a museum in southern Marseille, France, dedicated to faience, a type of pottery. It opened to the public in June 1995 in the Château Pastré at 157, avenue de Montredon 13008 Marseille. It is planned to transfer the faience museum to the Château Borély, which will also hold the planned Museum of Decorative Arts and Fashion, as part of preparations for Marseille becoming the European cultural capital in 2013.

The museum is housed in the magnificent nineteenth century building named after its former owner Eugène Pastré (1806-1868). The chateau is at the end of a long avenue in the 120 hectares (300 acres) Campagne Pastré park, owned by the city of Marseille.

Eugène Pastré and his wife Céline de Beaulincourt-Marles wanted to build a house suitable for the celebrations and social gatherings they gave. Around 1860 they assigned construction of the building to the Parisian architect Jean-Charles Danjoy (1806-1862), who had undertaken a first plan at the request of the city of Marseille for the Palais Longchamp, which was not accepted. The country house is polychrome, with pink bricks and white stones, with curves and counter-curves.

The layout of the castle allows it to exhibit nearly 1,500 pieces of ceramic pottery. All exhibits on the ground floor, however, were removed a few years ago. The cases have since remained completely empty.

There are records of pottery being made in Marseille from the sixteenth century. In 1526 Claude Forbin, lord of Gardanne, started a faïence works with an Italian, Jean Angeli from Offida. They established the pottery in one of the suburbs of Marselle, at Saint-Marcel, and engaged a Spaniard named Sanchez from Lérida to run the operation. In the 1520s the skilled worker Bruno Catani, son of the Milanese Antoine Catani who had trained him in Marseille, established himself in the suburb of Aubagne. He produced a wide variety of pottery products. Two other potters, Antoine Franc from Manosque and Laurent Borelli from Grimaud, rented space in his factory and use of the oven on condition that they did not make competing products. In 1535 Jean Angeli had joined them. Nothing is known of the details of their production.