Sleuthing Out Si Non Est Satis Mementot Paupertatis

HT sent me a large 18 inch charger in a style of glaze called faience. We see the motto ‘Si non est satis mementot paupertatis’ emblazoned on it. This translates roughly to “remember, if you do not have enough of poverty…” HT wonders what I can tell her about this piece acquired at a thrift store.

I told her the wonderful back story. Also, I said this piece serves as a great example of an object that offers clues to its history in both message (the Latin), and medium (faience glaze on stoneware).

The meaning of Si non est satis mementot paupertatis

The motto surrounds a Christian female angel with a pinecone over her head. Pinecones and pineapples are traditional symbols of hospitality. So, as sleuths, we search for a female-based religious order that focuses on hospitality as well as the relationship between poverty and spirituality. Religious orders have long concerned themselves with the poor. Perhaps we see the most remarkable achievement of Catholic sisters in the Little Sisters of the Poor (Petites Soeure des Pauvres). Founded in 1839 by Jeanne Jugan, who Pope Benedict later canonized in 2009 as Saint Mary of the Cross, LSP.

As a young girl she took elderly impoverished women to her small and meager apartment in Brittany, cared for them, gave them her bed, and begged in the streets to feed and clothe them. Her alms begging, practiced over four decades, enabled her to found four places of respite for the elderly women, and the Poor Sisters became an Order. From its humble beginnings in Cancale Brittany, the Order formed homes in England in 1851 and the States in 1868.

Today the Order serves 13,000 elderly poor in 31 countries and is one of the largest institutes for women in the Catholic Church with 234 houses for the poor and 2,372 Sisters. All this from a lowly start in France.

Why did I make this connection?

The pine cone, the motto, female angel, and a little research. Sisters of the Poor have four main tenants to their service: Chastity, Poverty, Obedience, and Hospitality. The latter, not the norm for all Orders, hospitality is seen as the bedrock of their service because through everyday acts of hospitality, they feel closer to God. And yes, they still carry a begging basket. So, now we know the iconography of HT’s charger.

Now, we come to the faience medium, developed in France, in the late Renaissance (16th century) as a high art form for pottery, inspired by Italian Renaissance maiolica. Craftsmen also developed this style in Spain and Portugal, called majolica, which debuted at London’s Great Exhibition in 1851. In fact the finest faience produced by France is called Palissy ware. Collectors love to find these interesting objet d’art which sometimes look so naturalistic in form (think a life size pottery fish on its own plate) that they appear surreal. Add to this the very bright colors that lead in the glaze can facilitate, and these pieces become joyful.

The opaque lead glaze that allows for the application of a solid color over the whole surface makes all types of majolica are distinctive. None of the stoneware shows through this, and colors are applied over it and fired in one firing. So, majolica was both inexpensive to make, and could be applied on cheaper supports so even terracotta, a soft biscuit, could be made non-porous. Craftsmen made the best of it in France.

The Value?

So now we know both the origins of this piece and the philosophy! Now to the value. Condition serves as an important factor in ceramics, and this one appears in great shape. As to the age we see that HT’s hangs on a wood wall, and indeed has two holes in the foot edge to facilitate a wire. That places it in the 20th century when people considered pieces like this decorative and didn’t use them for food service. Some of the finest Pallisy ware pieces fetch thousands of dollars. We see some of the best Italian Majolica wares only in Museums, and because of the one-stop firing process, some of them are quite large. Double and triple firing of a large vessel could damage a large piece. The value of the piece is $250. If HT found a collector of religious faience, she could except more.