Figure 1. Front and back views of a ca. 1855 microscope slide by P.-J. Potteau. It is an unusual size: 3 1/8 x 3/4 inch // 80 x 20 mm. The specimen is a longitudinal section through a human cranium.
Philippe - Jacques Potteau, 1807 - 1876
by Brian Stevenson
last updated May, 2022
Philippe-Jacques Potteau was a long-time employee of the Museum of Natural History (Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle), in Paris, France.
During the mid-1850s, he ventured into producing microscope slides on a professional level. He appears to have specialized in thin-sections of bones and minerals (Figures 1 and 2). He displayed his preparations at the 1855 Exposition Universelle, in Paris (Figure 2). Potteau did not advertise his slide-making business in Parisian trade directories, suggesting that it was a small operation, and probably did not operate for very long. These rare slides are of unusual dimensions, are generally well-made, and would be welcome in any collection.
Potteau is best known for the photographic portraits that he took during the 1860s, many of which documented visitors from outside France. These include representatives of the Japanese government who visited Paris in 1862 and 1864 (Figures 3-5).
Figure 1.
Front and back views of a ca. 1855 microscope slide by P.-J. Potteau. It is an unusual size: 3 1/8 x 3/4 inch // 80 x 20 mm. The specimen is a longitudinal section through a human cranium.
Figure 2.
Potteau's entry in the Official Catalogue of the 1855 Exposition Universelle. He exhibited, "Cut and polished shells and wood. Microscopic preparations of fossil wood and agates for polarization". Of note, his entry was directly above that of microscope slide-maker Hippolyte Pouilliart (1826-1895), who was son-in-law of microscopist Joseph Bourgogne (1803 – ca. 1883), and who later produced slides as one of the Bourgogne Freres and as H. Bourgogne (those celebrated slide-makers are biographied elsewhere in this series).
Philippe-Jacques Potteau was born during 1807 in Menen, Belgium. The date, or purpose, of his move to Paris is not known. He married Marie Jeanne Proyer on September 1, 1834.
Potteau became a naturalized citizen of France on May 30, 1848. A record of that occasion stated that he was an "employé au Muséum d'histoire naturelle". Ten days earlier, he and Marie Jeanne had entered into a financial exchange (possibly to fund his naturalization process), which gave their address as 5 Rue Guy de la Brosse. That address is the same as given for "Potteau (Ph.-J.)" in the catalogue of the 1855 Exposition Universelle (Figure 2). That address confirms that our microscopist was the same man as took the celebrated photographs shown in Figures 3-5.
As noted above, Potteau's career as a professional slide-maker probably lasted for only a very short time, possibly a year or less.
He became photographer for the Anthropology Department of the Natural History Museum in 1862. However, his famous ethnographic portraits appear to have been produced as a private enterprise. Potteau exhibited photographs in London in 1862 and 1863, and Paris in 1863.
P.-J. Potteau died on July 10, 1876.
Figure 3.
Photographs of Mohamed au Said Zerouke, an Algerian soldier, taken by Philippe-Jacques Potteau in 1863. Adapted for nonprofit, educational purposes from an internet auction site / Art Gallery of Ontario, https://ago.ca/collection/object/2008/1249.
Figure 4.
Portraits of Japanese emissaries to Paris. (Left) Shūhei Mitsukuri (1825–1886), photographed in April, 1862. (Center) Nagaaki Ikeda (Chōhatsu) (1837–1879), photographed in 1864. (Right) Taichi Tanabe (1831–1915), photographed in 1864. Adapted for nonprofit, educational purposes from Pitt Rivers Museum, https://philipgrover.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-last-samurai-jacques-philippe.html
Figure 5.
"A Portrait of Mohamed", by Philippe-Jacques Potteau, 1862. Adapted for nonprofit, educational purposes from an internet auction site.
Acknowledgement
Thank you to Maurice Greeson for generously providing a microscope slide by Philippe-Jacques Potteau.
Resources
Catalogue Officiel Publié par Ordre de la Commission Impériale (1855) page 49
France government records, accessed through ancestry.com
Grover, Philip (2017, accessed May, 2022) The Last Samurai: Jacques-Philippe Potteau's Photographs of the Japanese Missions to Europe, 1862 and 1864, https://philipgrover.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-last-samurai-jacques-philippe.html
Naturalization record of Philippe Jacques Potteau (1848) "Né(e) en 1807 à Menin (Belgique), Qualité: employé au Muséum d'histoire naturelle, Objet: naturalization, Ouverture du dossier: 30 mai 1848", accessed through https://www.siv.archives-nationales.culture.gouv.fr
Probate of the will of Philippe Jacques Potteau (1876) "Notoriété après décès de Philippe Jacques Potteau, survenu en son domicile 53, rue Buffon, le 6 juillet 1876 et de sa veuve, Marie Jane Proyer, survenu même lieu, le 27 septembre 1876. À signaler: les défunts ne laissent aucun ascendant ni descendant à reserve", accessed through https://www.siv.archives-nationales.culture.gouv.fr
Transaction between Philippe Jacques Potteau and Marie Jane Proyer (1848) "Donation réciproque entre Philippe Jacques Potteau, employé au Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Paris, et Marie Jane Proyer, son épouse, demeurant 5, rue Guy Labrosse", accessed through www.siv.archives-nationales.culture.gouv.fr