Port-au-Persil Pottery

For dozens of years the village of Port-au-Persil has played a major role in ceramics in Quebec. Its pottery, located at the entrance to the town of Saint-Simeon, at the junction point of roads leading to the Saguenay region in an exceptional place to showcase Quebec’s best ceramists.

It was founded by Pierre Legault (1929-1983), master potter, who had studied Arts and Crafts in Montreal, who met the celebrated Japanese ceramist Shimaoka and discovered in himself a veritable passion for ceramics.

In 1965, Pierre Legault started an enterprise called Compagnie Pierre Legault Inc. which will later be known as SIAL. His company produced material and equipment for the ceramics industry including the famous potter’s kicking-wheel which carries his name and which is used at the pottery today.

In 1974, Mr. Legault bought a farm in Port-au-Persil. He moved in with his family and installed his atelier in the barn and started producing and teaching. He built a Japanese style kiln to fire with gaz or wood. Today, each summer the lighting of this kiln is an occasion for a celebratory event called Éclats d’Argile - Fragments of Clay.

Every summer more and more travellers stop to visit the pottery and its workshop turns out new talented potters who have become well-known in Quebec and in Canada.

Since 1984, a year after the premature death of Mr. Legault, the Biennale Nationale de la Ceramique inaugurated an annual prize in recognition of his lifework. The prize is given to the best Canadian ceramist of the year.

The pottery offers a gallery-boutique, which features the nadmade creations of dozens of Quebec ceramists a workshop-school, a café and terrace, a guided-tour service for the Charlevoix region and much more.

Address of Pottery of Port of Persil:

1001, Saint-Laurent Street (Highway 138) Saint-Simeon G0T 1Z0

Phone: 418-638-2349

Website of Pottery of Port of Persil: www.poteriedeportaupersil.com