Museum Galle-July

The museum Galle-July, founded with Creil (Oise) exists since the donation made in 1929 by Mrs. Berthe Galle. This notable creilloise, widow of Auguste Galle (deceased in 1928) and of his son Maurice (death on September 25th 1916 as soldier during the Battle of the Sum), decided to yield his residence to the town of Creil with all that it contained like goods. The goal was to make perdurer the name of Galle and July. From where a donation which stipulates that the house must be preserved in the state, as if the inhabitants still lived there.

The house was built on the ruins of the castle of Creil: the cellars and the ground floor comprise superb medieval vaults. The two successive stages and the attic are of time 1790 approximately. A double atmosphere reigns with the wire of the rooms: a splendid kitchen with the copper ustensils fixed at the walls, the modes of varied cooking and water supply of the past.

Furniture is times different according to acquisitions from the owners: furniture Empire for example, having belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Bagnall. He was artistic director with the manufacture of Faïence of Creil.

The museum

This municipal museum was initially a middle-class residence , which itself was built on a medieval castle. It was a local manor house: Louis, count de Blois, of Chartres and Clermont, granted a charter on January 23rd 1197 this city. He became royal castle under Charles V Wise the starting from 1375. This castle was interesting in the context of the Guerre One hundred Year old to protect the capital. Moreover, the natural site is important: the manor house is built on an island surrounded by the Oise. With the end of the the Middle Ages and the development of the art of the Rebirth, this castle interested less the kings of France.

Left to the abandonment by the last owner, Louis, duke of Bourbon, lord of Chantilly, construction fell in ruin. These vestiges were sold in 1788 and the architect used the aforementioned ruins to build a vast residence. On four levels (ground floor, first, second stage and attic), 19 parts are arranged. At the ground floor, four parts use the intersecting ribs remaining of the medieval time.

They were the notable ones which placed in this place: an artistic director of the manufacture of Earthenware of Creil, the English Jacques Bagnall, the mayor and doctor Jules July, of the middle-class men shareholders, Ernest Galle, painter and collector in all kinds (shells, fossils per thousands, butterflies, herbaria, books of natural history…). This man was the cousin of Emile Galle, the artist, founder with good of others of the movement of the Art nouveau in Nancy. Moreover for the marriage of the young Auguste, wire of Ernest, with the young lady Berthe Franchemont, it carried out a small table with wood incrustations with exotic dragonflies and flowers. The dedication is: " Emile of Nancy, May 8th, 1894 " (date of the marriage). The four feet comprise flowers in the pear shape. One finds also a plate with almond with an unquestionable dedication concerant Filipino about a play for the first which finds by opening its almonds: two fruits heads digs. two small white earthenware escutcheons (with the grids of the Stanislas place of Nancy) are also preserved in this museum. There was thereafter, his son Auguste and, finally, his grandson Maurice Galle. It is the latter which was to take the succession. It profited from a privileged education: elementary school held by nuns, a tutor in residence before entering to the Holy college--Joseph with Senlis. It takes down its baccalaureat in 1912 there. Then, it makes two years of right to the catholic Institute in Paris. It is the summer 1914… the First World War bursts: he becomes soldier. After a fast formation, it is sent to the face in the 150e and 106e R.I.Il finds death on September 25th, 1916 with Bouchavesnes in the Sum: carried initially disappeared, it was buried by the British who identified his body in March 1917. Deceased without children, his/her parents decided to make gift of their property at the town of Creil in 1928-1929 to make of it a museum which bears the names of the principal occupants.

The characteristic of this museum is that the middle-class atmosphere of the 19th century is restored perfectly because of presence of all furniture, the crockery, the toys, the books, the tables… of all the generations of owners. One crosses the centuries, one breathes the activities of the servants, the ladies, the children and the Sirs.

The museum contains a beautiful earthenware collection of Creil, shown in two rooms of the 2nd stage.

The visits are guided (approximately 1 hour, free first Sunday of the month). A book, booklets and postcards are on sale to approach various topics of the last life of this museum. An association exists to help with the organization of exposures, of conferences in the museum.

The faience manufacture

It was an earthenware manufacture. It was founded first once the 7 meadow An V (on May 26th, 1797) by a Parisian glass cutter, Robert Bray O' Reilly. It lasted only a little more than one year. It is only with Stone into 1801 that the history of this establishment is durably launched until 1895.

Directors and owners who marked their print in this manufacture:

Jacques Bagnall (born in England in 1762, Josiah Wedgwood raises) which, after a passage to the pocelainery of Chantilly, came to work in Creil as from 1802. There, become artistic director, it will create superb parts, while copying briskly from the Wedgwood style: the parts of services, known as out of black sandstones, exposed to the museum of Creil, of it are a first proof, without forgetting certain soup tureens and the crater on yellow bottom instead of the typical blue of the English Master.
Charles Gaspard Alexandre Saint-Cricq-Casaux , owner and principal shareholder (as from 1811) of manufacture. It is him which succeeds in amalgamating with the manufacture of Montereau in 1819.
Louis Martin Lebeuf (1792-1854) and Jean Baptiste Gratien Milliet (1797-1875), the English Georges Vernon father and wire, director and sub-manager until 1849: they introduced the English tender porcelain with Creil.
Henry Felix Anatole Barluet (born in 1820) succeeded Vernon. He was mayor of Creil until his death.

Manufacture was the first employer of the town of Creil during decades. In 1866, the census of population quotes 503 domicilées people with Creil and who work there, on a total population of 4.539 Creillois. In detail, there are 349 workmen, 129 workers, 12 engineers, employees and director, without forgetting 3 servants. The first employer of the basin creillois was the Forging mills of Montataire cash 1.700 employees.

Biography

Stock exchange Leon, History of the city and châtellenie of Creil , 1883.
Stephan Audouin-Rouzeau and Nathalie Garreau-Demilly, Maurice Galle, life of a soldier, mourning of a family (1914-1929) , MEMO, 1998.
Maddy Aries, the manufacture of Creil (1797-1895) , Guénégaud Editions, 1974.
Nathalie Demilly, Study on the people working with the earthenware manufacture of Creil (1866-1896) , publication of the Friends of the museum Galle-July and the earthenware of Creil, 2005.
Rene Gandilhon, '' Vernon, engravers and faience manufacturers in England, in Russia and in France '', Company of Agriculture, Trades, Sciences and Arts of the Marne, 1965,1975.

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