The magazine "La sardine du Croisic. Petit poisson, grande histoire", as well as the magazine published in 2004 by the Institut CGT d'histoire sociale de la Bretagne on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the strike of the Douarnenez sardine workers, were given to us by a kind Mrs Béatrice Verney, president of the Société des Amis du Croisic. This magazine was published last September, at the same time as the Musée de la conserverie de Loctudy officially opened its doors to the general public. An exhibition on the theme of the magazine opens today at the Maison du Patrimoine in Le Croisic and will be open to the public free of charge on Wednesdays and Sundays from 4 to 6.30pm until 4 September 2022.

The magazine on the 80th anniversary of the Douarnenez sardine workers' strike was offered to the association of the Friends of the Loctudy cannery by Robert Salaun, departmental president of the CGT Institute of Local History of Brittany, and Gaston Balliot, a Loctudist passionate about social history. This review was published in the context of the symposium devoted in November 2004 to the 80th anniversary of the victorious struggle of the Douarnenez sardine workers.

Many thanks to our generous donors. Their donations will be used to enrich the museum's archival collection.

This ceramic plate was made in the artistic earthenware workshop of Georges Dreyfus in Moret-sur-Loing (Seine-et-Marne department, Île-de-France region), which operated from 1890 to 1936.
Georges Dreyfus was a professional in tableware and ceramic arts. From his workshop came a varied production, carefully decorated by a wide variety of artists whom the art dealer called upon for artistic collaborations.

Many pieces from the workshop were intended for table service, such as dishes, plates and tureens that Georges Dreyfus sold in his Parisian shop on rue du Paradis.
Commissioned by the Amieux brothers, two famous canners from Nantes known for their pioneering and ingenious advertising strategies, this polychromatic earthenware plate was made using the barbotine technique.
The slip decoration consists in adding relief on a pottery. Here this relief takes the form of four elegant sardines which frame the emblematic poem of the Amieux Frères company.
The marli, i.e. the peripheral part of the plate constituting the slightly inclined crown, is here carefully decorated with Breton landscapes (lighthouse, boat, biniou player, couple of dancing Bretons) as well as the slogans of the Amieux Frères company written in phylactery, i.e. in the spirit of medieval calligraphy.

The copy we now have was donated by Pierre Quillivic, former technical director of the Paul Chacun cannery and technical and production manager of the Cobreco (Arok) cannery, and current municipal councillor in charge of issues relating to the Loctudy cannery museum. We thank him warmly for this donation.

On the windowsill of the dining room, you will have the opportunity to admire the sculpture Oceano nox of the self-taught artist Jean-Pierre Gendra. Since his first encounter with the material in 1989 through clay modelling, the artist has tried his hand at several of them. In particular, he tested direct carving on wood before falling in love with bronze, which he successfully cast for the first time in 1993. He describes this experience as follows: "Bronze is living a journey with creation, leading to all the stages of the work, from conception to technical realisation, especially the fascinating moment of the fusion of the metal".

For his sculpture Oceano nox created in July 2013, the artist wanted to convey the harshness and danger of the fisherman's job. With this work, he also aims to make the public think about ecological issues such as the dangers of overfishing and the importance of having a reasoned approach in the use that Man makes of natural resources.

To discover the artist's other works, visit her website at click here.

In the hall of the former seaside villa of the Le Gall family hangs on the wall a Bigouden doily made from Irish lace using the technique known as "picot piqué". This work, which was made in the 1950s, was generously given to us by Lucile Chever, lacemaker and active member of the cultural association "Dame Picot" which aims to promote this traditional skill.

This doily is made up of a network of motifs inspired by Irish coins: oak leaves, farandoles of leaves, ears of corn, bunches of grapes, double roses, eglantines, helices, etc. The motifs were made using a steel hook, DMC wire and cordonnet (linen thread). They are laid out harmoniously on a canvas before being firmly woven. The network is then consolidated with a picot stitch.

Irish lace was the main subsistence activity of the workers in the canneries of the Breton coast during the great sardine shortage of 1902 to 1908. During this period of great famine in Brittany, religious congregations as well as wealthy aristocrats mobilised to finance the teaching of this craft to factory workers in order to offer them a source of income in these difficult times. The finished works were then sent to Paris and sold to elegant ladies in department stores.