Bordeaux, (Jules Vieillard factory) Important part of a Japanese service in fine earthenware with polychrome decoration of farmyard animals, birds, and fish among flowering branches and herbs, stylized Japanese ideogram in black, purple fillet on the rim, including : 43 dinner plates, 14 soup plates, 35 dessert plates, 1 sauceboat on adjoining tray, 3 raviers, 1 covered oval sugar bowl on tray, 1 covered vegetable dish, 1 compotier, 3 footed bowls, 2 round dishes (27, 5 and 31.5 cm). Marked in black: JVc Bx in a cartouche for Jules Vieillard in Bordeaux. Late 19th century. Minor wear, a few chips and scratches. This service is referred to in the Album des principaux modèles de la manufacture de Jules Vieillard à Bordeaux as décor Japonais, and its design is attributed to the decorator Eugène Millet. Many of the animals and birds are borrowed from the 1814 Album des peintures d'après nature (Hokusai Shashin Gafu). The decoration of this service is in line with the Japanese trend that has been in vogue for some years, not only through its sources but also through its organization: the choice of a random distribution of motifs on the pieces, three subjects on the plates - large, medium and small - creating surprising, sometimes incongruous associations and a resolute desire for asymmetry. Maison Vieillard's Décor Japonais service is thus in the tradition of the Rousseau service created by Félix Bracquemond from 1866 onwards, but it is even more Japanese in style, with bright, cheerful colors in relief and print, and the brand itself inscribed in a rectangular cartouche in the style of ideograms. Jacqueline du Pasquier - J. Vieillard & Cie, histoire de la faïence de Bordeaux, de l'anglomanie au rêve orientaliste - Sèvres, Revue de Société des Amis du Musée National de Céramique de Sèvres, Paris, 2015, p. 135-136 Part of a service with the same decoration is preserved at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Bordeaux.