Snake Drinking from a Chanterelle

André de Manneville for A. Bigot et Cie Snake Drinking from a Chanterelle Coupe, c. 1900

Credit line

André de Manneville for A. Bigot et Cie

Sculptor / Designer

André de Manneville

Manufacturing Firm

A. Bigot et Cie

Year

c. 1900

Material

Glazed stoneware with pooled glass “water” in the basin

Dimensions

H 16.5 cm; D approx. 16 cm

Animal Classification

Reptiles & Amphibians → Snakes

Geographic Classification

France → Centre-Val de Loire → Mer

Primary image André de Manneville for A. Bigot et Cie Snake Drinking from a Chanterelle Coupe, c. 1900 · Click to open

Object Details

Object title: Snake Drinking from a Chanterelle Coupe
Credit line: André de Manneville for A. Bigot et Cie
Sculptor / Designer: André de Manneville
Manufacturing Firm: A. Bigot et Cie
Year: c. 1900
Material: Glazed stoneware with pooled glass “water” in the basin
Dimensions: H 16.5 cm; D approx. 16 cm

Marks & Inscriptions

Incised in script on the underside: “de Manville.”

Incised in script on the underside: “Bigot.”

Provenance

Macklowe Gallery, New York

Literature

Hélène Bédague, Alexandre Bigot, chimiste & céramiste. (Louviers: Éditions Loubatières / Musée de Louviers, 2016), p. 129, illustrating a closely related example captioned “Manneville/Bigot: Chanterelle au serpent, H 16.5 cm.”

Paul Arthur, French Art Nouveau Ceramics: An Illustrated Dictionary (Woodbridge: Antique Collectors’ Club, 2015), p. 260, illustrating this model and identifying André de Manneville as a sculptor and designer associated with Bigot’s production.

Authorship & Production

André de Manneville, also signing “de Manville” (sculptor, French, 1867–1929) for A. Bigot et Cie, the ceramic manufactory/workshop-enterprise of Alexandre Bigot (chemist, ceramist, and manufacturer, French, 1862–1927), Mer, Loir-et-Cher, Centre-Val de Loire, France.

Animal Classification

Reptiles & Amphibians Snakes

Geographic Classification

France Centre-Val de Loire Mer

Commentary

This compact stoneware coupe reflects the collaborative production structure characteristic of A. Bigot et Cie around 1900: a sculptural model by André de Manneville executed within the organized ceramic manufactory directed by Alexandre Bigot at Mer. The work transforms a chanterelle mushroom into a small forest tableau. A snake coils around the base, rises along the stem, and extends its head toward a pool of green glass set into the basin. It is neither a conventional vase nor a simple animal figure, but a sculptural ceramic environment in which fungus, water, earth, and reptile are joined into a single composition.

The form depends on a precise balance between natural observation and imaginative staging. The chanterelle supplies the object’s structure: its flared cap becomes a shallow basin, while its ribbed underside descends into the stem. Around this vegetal architecture, the snake moves with quiet narrative purpose. Its body coils at the base, climbs the stalk, and resolves in the act of drinking at the rim. The animal is therefore not applied decoration; it gives the object its action.

The pooled glass is central to the design. A. Bigot et Cie used fused glass within stoneware to evoke water, dew, and mineral deposit. Here the green glass becomes the object’s visual and conceptual center: a small luminous body of water held within the chanterelle and approached by the serpent. The surrounding glazes — cream, brown, grey, and mossy green — reinforce the fiction of a damp forest floor.

De Manneville’s modeling is restrained but effective. The snake’s head, body, and subtle compression against the mushroom stem suggest life without sentimentality. The creature is legible from multiple angles, and the piece rewards close viewing: from the side it reads as a mushroom-form vessel; from above, as a scene of appetite, moisture, and hidden life.

The subject belongs naturally to Symbolist and Art Nouveau interests in metamorphosis, concealed vitality, and the small dramas of the natural world. Snakes carried associations of danger, renewal, knowledge, and desire; mushrooms suggested the secret life of the forest. De Manneville and Bigot combine these motifs without overburdening the object with allegory. The result is poetic because the image remains simple and physically convincing.

The dual signatures are significant. The incised “de Manville” identifies the sculptural designer, while the incised “Bigot” situates the work within the ceramic enterprise directed by Alexandre Bigot. This distinction matters. The object was not simply “make by Bigot” in a personal studio sense; it reflects the organized production structure of A. Bigot et Cie at Mer, where sculptural models, ceramic chemistry, and workshop execution came together in experimental stoneware. This object should therefore be understood as a collaborative manufactory/workshop production with a specific sculptural author.

Within the Bestiaire, this piece belongs to the Snakes subsection. Its strength lies in the way the animal is embedded within a complete ecological setting: fungus, mineral surface, pooled water, and reptile all participate in the object’s meaning. It is a small piece, but a particularly coherent example of how A. Bigot et Cie could turn ceramic experiment into a concise natural drama.

Related Works

A closely related example is illustrated in Hélène Bédague’s Alexandre Bigot, chimiste & céramiste, p. 129, captioned “Manneville/Bigot: Chanterelle au serpent, H 16.5 cm.” Its publication confirms the model’s recognition within recent scholarship on Bigot’s ceramic production.

Paul Arthur illustrates this model on p. 260 of French Art Nouveau Ceramics: An Illustrated Dictionary, identifying André de Manneville as a sculptor and designer associated with Bigot’s circle. Arthur’s entry helps place the work within the larger network of sculptors whose models were edited or produced by A. Bigot et Cie.

The object may be compared with other Bigot productions that integrate animal subjects into vegetal or geological supports, including serpent candlesticks, mollusk-rimmed bowls, and fungal or sea-plant forms. What distinguishes this example is the clarity of its narrative: the serpent’s action explains the entire structure of the object.

Within the Bestiaire, the piece relates to the Prud’homme–Jeanneney pumpkin vessel with frog and lizard and to Hoentschel’s snake-and-frog vase, each of which places reptile or amphibian life within an organic ceramic setting. The Bigot example is more intimate in scale, but especially coherent in its fusion of animal behavior, habitat, and material effect.

Image Gallery

Overall views, detail studies, marks, textures, and alternate views. Click any tile for fullscreen viewing.

Assigned Classifications

Reptiles & Amphibians → Snakes