Conférence – L’argilière du Thoais

Présentation

Daniel Rota, an Arts et Métiers engineer, member of the ArTho Board of Directors and a great enthusiast of the history of Vendeuvre, will be giving a talk on the history and details of the Thoais clay pit.

Le Thoais, a locality between Vendeuvre and Champ-sur-Barse, is a hill made up of clays that were extracted for potters.
Léon Moynet, founder of the Manufacture d’Art chrétien, bought it in 1862. The clay pit went on to supply La Sainterie until 1961, when it closed, and then ‘Le Carreau flammé’, the company that succeeded La Sainterie until the early 1980s.

In this talk, you’ll find out more about this famous clay pit: the geological and chemical characteristics of these high-quality clays, the preparation phases before they are used by stamper, the different stages in making a statue, the complex firing process…
In other words, you’ll discover the specific characteristics of this clay and the wide range of trades practised by the ‘Saintiers’.

Booking required.