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Deck, Joseph-Théodore
(b Guebwiller, Alsace, 1823; d ?Paris, 1891). French potter. He followed his father into the silk-dyeing trade, where no doubt he acquired his predilection for colour. About 1842 he was apprenticed at a Strasbourg stove factory and from 1844 travelled and worked in France, Germany and Austria. In 1856 he established his own workshop in Paris, where he experimented with glazes, eventually creating his much-admired bleu de Deck (1861). He produced lustre and polychrome painted, tin-enamelled wares based on Isnik and Persian ceramics and Italian maiolica. He also made ‘inlaid’ pottery in the style of 16th-century wares from Saint-Porchaire; a selection of these was shown at the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Industries of 1861 in Paris. His reputation as the first ‘modern’ studio potter rests on the range and quality of his technical innovations and his successful use of historical methods. Many early pieces from his workshop (e.g. dish painted by Eléonore Escallier, c. 1867; Paris, Mus. A. Déc.) were painted by such other artists as Albert Anker, Félix Bracquemond and Eléonore Escallier (1827–88). During the 1870s he became a pioneer of Japonisme and began experimenting with reduced copper glazes on porcelain, developing flambé glazes similar to Chinese glazes used during the period of the Qianlong emperor (reg 1736–96). Deck was appointed administrator (1887–91) at the porcelain factory of Sèvres, where he introduced a new type of glassy, soft-paste porcelain suitable for making reproductions of the factory’s 18th-century styles. Under his direction Sèvres extended its production to include porcelain with rich, monochrome glazes (e.g. faceted urn vase, 1883; Paris, Mus. A. Déc.).
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