Vintage Ceramic St. Clément Duck Pitcher

The Legendary St. Clément Duck Pitcher
A little fabulous, a little ridiculous—and completely irresistible.

Meet our St. Clément Duck Pitcher: the cheerful ceramic companion the French once knew from cafés, where it dutifully delivered water for pastis in the 1950s and ’60s. Practical? Yes. Sensible? Debatable. Delightful? Absolutely.

The tale goes...
And now for the rumour we probably shouldn’t love as much as we do… According to one charming story (too good to fully fact-check), the duck design was originally commissioned by none other than Marie Antoinette herself. Apparently the queen had a thing for “farm-core” long before Instagram made it fashionable. Sheep, pigs, ducks—she wanted them all, but preferably in porcelain. So the tale goes that she requested duck-shaped pitchers for her whimsical mini-farm at Versailles, where she could live her best pastoral fantasy while wearing impossibly delicate silk.

True or not? Who knows. But is it a wonderful story to tell at the dinner table? Bien sûr.

A Barnyard of Collectible Joy
The St. Clément duck is only one star in a whole menagerie of French animal pitchers—roosters, pigs, cockatoos, even the occasional fish—with each piece bursting with personality. They’re wonderfully hand-painted, a touch absurd, and completely irresistible. One pitcher is a quirky accent; a collection becomes instant kitchen theatre.

Handmade Whimsy for the Modern Home
Whether you actually use your duck to pour drinks (he’s very capable) or simply let him grace a shelf like the charming eccentric he is, these vintage ceramics bring texture, history, and a wink of humour to any interior.

About our flock
We almost always have a small flock of these charming ducks in our collection, each one with its own personality. As every St. Clément piece is hand-shaped and hand-painted, their colours, expressions, and tiny quirks vary—part of the irresistible charm, but also a reminder that your duck may differ slightly from the photos. What never varies, however, is their condition: we carefully select only intact, fully functional pitchers, ready to waddle straight back into service.

And just to clear up a common misunderstanding: they are all genuinely old! St. Clément, one of France’s historic faience manufacturers founded in the mid-18th century, produced these whimsical animal pitchers throughout the early and mid-20th century. Because our examples are so beautifully preserved—and because we often have several at once—people sometimes assume they’re new or Portuguese. They’re not. They’re authentic French vintage originals with decades of stories behind them… even if they still look fresh from the pond.