Manufacture nationale de Sèvres

The Manufacture royale de porcelaine de Sèvres is one of the most important European manufacturers for the production of porcelain frits. The factory is based in Sèvres since 1756.

• 2.1 Rococo
• 2.2 Classicism
• 2.3 19th century

Work history

Manufacture de Vincennes

In 1740 the fourth porcelain factory in France at the Château de Vincennes was established on the outskirts of Paris as a private company. After 1745 the manufactory won financially and artistically - crafted in importance. In Vincennes is produced to 1756 under the name Manufacture de Vincennes.

In Vincennes began with the imitation of Meissen porcelain. It was initiated by the French Finance Minister Louis Henri de Fulvy Orry, who wanted to make the French porcelain competitive and curb the import from the Saxon Meissen. He recruited three former workers of the porcelain manufactory of Chantilly, the brothers Gilles and Robert Dubois and François Gravant, who experimented with porcelain. 1745 succeeded in producing porcelain frits, which in its processing a number of new shapes and colors allowed.

The secret of the manufacture of hard porcelain ( pâte dure ) was developed in Europe by 1708 in Meissen. Traditional porcelain was by the East India Company from China as Chinese porcelain job as Famille jaune, noire, rose, verte and imported from Japan as Kakiemon and Imari porcelain to Europe.

One of the main commissioners of the manufactory was Madame de Pompadour ( 1721-1764 ). Because of their influence in society, the manufactory was of great importance. Your taste shaped the forms and colors produced. 1756 color was named after her, the famous Rosé Pompadour. In addition to its influence on the artistic development of Manunfaktur, the Marquise won several well-known artists as a painter and model masters like. Among others, Jean -Jacques Bachelier, Jean -Claude Duplessis, François Boucher and Etienne- Maurice Falconet Patronage. She woke with her influence interest Louis XV. who financed the building in Sèvres, in the manufactory, 18 years after its founding in Vincennes moved. He secured funding and turned it into a royal manufactory. The promised by the king monopoly of colored painting brought the manufactory another decisive advantage over the French competition.

Manufacture royale de porcelaine de Sèvres

1756 moved the factory into the location on the route from Paris to Versailles, Sèvres. On February 17, 1760 they finally went into royal possession until the French Revolution, in consequence of which the factory was nationalized in 1790.

Porcelaine de Sèvres to 1769 was exclusively soft-paste porcelain ( pâte tendre ). After 1760 the problem of the lack of kaolin had been recognized and was discovered in 1768 near Limoges occurrence, genuine hard porcelain is made. In Sèvres both methods of production were maintained. For economic reasons, the production of soft-paste porcelain was banned by Napoleon and adjusted according to the French Revolution. Only in the second half of the 20th century, this forgotten technology has been re- designed and included in the repertoire.

Manufacture nationale de Sèvres

Today Manufacture nationale de Sèvres has issued a small porcelain museum, where parts of the finished since the creation oeuvres, such as dishes, sculptures, models and molds.

The oeuvre of the manufactory

The production of the factory included both use porcelain as well as pieces that were used exclusively for decorative purposes. Many of the vases were made ​​in different sizes, in different colors, designs, scenes and gilding. While particular forms were often made for an extended period and only decorated differently. The names of the pieces from this derive from the mold, the decor or the names of people.

Often sets were formed from the individual pieces. The characteristic of a genuine set is that the individual pieces used formally in harmony and form a unit. Identical shapes of different sizes or different shapes with the same decor and the painted image sequences of subjects used scenes were combined. In the 18th century sets were generally made ​​up of an odd number, usually three or five pieces. Sets were placed at prominent points in the room. In general, they found on dressers or mantelpieces their place. They often stood in front of a mirror, which showed the second side of the painting.

Rococo

Vases

Generally

• Vases à oreille, 1755, soft-paste porcelain, Wallace Collection, inventory number C241 The name I infers from the shape of the handles in the form of ear (French: oreill ear)

• Cuvettes à fleurs Verdun, 1755, soft-paste porcelain, Wallace Collection, inventory C214

• Vase pot pourri Pompadour, 1756, soft-paste porcelain, Wallace Collection, inventory number C239

• Vases à dauphin, 1756, soft-paste porcelain, Wallace Collection, inventory number C215

Birds of Louis- Armand David Dauphin The name is derived from the name Dauphin, who approached the firstborn son of the French king and heir to the throne as regent and received the estates of Dauphiné.

• Vase à tête d' éléphant, 1757, soft-paste porcelain, Wallace Collection, inventory number C249

The vase combined was combined with the function of a candelabrum and set up in front of mirrors, to increase the amount of light. You will Dodin attributed. It has the same base as the vases ' urn antique ' made ​​by 1758.

• Vase hollandois, 1757, soft-paste porcelain, Wallace Collection, inventory number C217,

• Cuvettes à fleurs à tombeau, 1757, soft-paste porcelain, Wallace Collection, inventory C204

Jean -Louis Morin The name is derived from the shape of a customary in ancient times and later during the Renaissance sarcophagus. Some of the interior was divided by individual compartments to offer the flowers hold. Partial porcelain flowers was placed in the vase.

• Cuvettes à fleurs à masques, 1757, soft-paste porcelain, Wallace Collection, inventory C225

• Vase pot pourri gondole, 1757, soft-paste porcelain, Wallace Collection, inventory C248. It is one of the first pieces in the shape of a boat finds a use in Sèvres porcelain.

• Vases à oreille, 1758, soft-paste porcelain, Wallace Collection, inventory number C252 Morin.

• Vase Boileau, 1758, soft-paste porcelain, Wallace Collection, inventory number C251 attributed with military scenes Morin. This Vasetyp was exclusively for decorative purposes. The name is derived from the name of Jacques -Rene Boileau de Picardie. He was the director of the porcelain factory at Vincennes from 1751 to 1756 and the Sèvres manufactory from 1756 to 1772.

• Vases hollandois nouveau oval, 1758, soft-paste porcelain, Wallace Collection, inventory number C233, The vase is an example of a decorative vase for cut flowers.

• Urn vases antique, 1758, soft-paste porcelain, Wallace Collection, inventory number C244

Birds of Louis- Armand David. The name is derived from the reference to an ancient Greek vase.

• Vase pot pourri Hébert, c.1760, soft-paste porcelain, Wallace Collection, inventory number C254, a pot pourri - vase, vase with lid. The name of the person Hébert is not unique. It could be a Marchand - Mercier out of time.

• Cuvettes à fleurs à tombeau, 1760, soft-paste porcelain, Wallace Collection, inventory number C206, genre scenes by Antoine Caton
• Vase pot pourri à vaisseau or en navire'gondole, c.1761, soft-paste porcelain, Wallace Collection, inventory C256. Pot- pourri Vase and Cover Birds Possibly by Armand ainé

• Pot pourri vases feuilles de mirte, c.1761, soft-paste porcelain, Wallace Collection, inventory number C257, Green with birds in landscape, pear shaped with, Greek key pattern on stem.

• Vases hollandois, 1763, soft-paste porcelain, Wallace Collection, inventory number C223,

Harbor scenes Morin attributed. The vase is an example of a decorative vase for cut flowers.

The name refers to the shape of the handles and the type of decoration. From the mid- 50s of the 17th century, the archaeological search intensified after forms of antiquity. The Rococo and the start of classicism exist simultaneously. The manufactory at Sèvres became the precursor of classical form language in France and Europe.

Classicism

From about 1770 the somewhat neglected production of tableware increased again, while the proportion of vases decreased. For example, a service in antique-like design for Catherine II was designed by Russia at this time. Also worth mentioning are those of the younger Lagrenée derived Essservice in the " Etruscan style ".

With plates as decoration for furniture and display items such as watches and barometers the manufactory to Vincennes times had started hesitantly. In Sèvres this production division was a complete success. The pieces were sold in large numbers at Marchand - Mercier (traders, who worked as an interior decorator from home ) that allowed them to assemble of the best art carpenters.

At the end of the century appeared Sèvres porcelains tissue structures and naturalistically painted floral decorations as well as depictions of birds as new decoration elements, as well as countless polychrome, based on the reproduction of Roman and Etruscan artifacts decors. In the same part of the existing since 1751 production of figures and figure groups from bisque climbed to unprecedented heights. From the invented in Sèvres, unglazed and thus matte porcelain, reminiscent of marble or alabaster figures, busts, reliefs and medals are still made to this day.

19th century

How prevailed in the large factories in Berlin and Meissen in the 19th century in Sèvres mainly the formal language of the 18th century before. Is typical of this technique the most colorful, comprehensive painting the parts. Distinctive decorative porcelain in the first half of the century was the ornamental vase with clear Empire elements.

Mid-century, Louis Robert invented the Pâte sur pâte - painting, a later introduced in the factories in Berlin and Meissen porcelain and earthenware method of ornamentation. A vase of Sèvres made ​​in 1851 at the World Exhibition in London quite a stir. Sèvres, and a little later the Minton china factory in Staffordshire / England in the 1860s brought this technology to flourish.

Bibliography

• See also List of porcelain factories and manufacturers
• Exhibition catalog: Sèvres porcelain. From the 18th century to the present. 5.10. -2. November 1975 Hetjens Museum, Dusseldorf.
• Bourgeois, Emile: Le biscuit de Sèvres au XVIIIe siècle. Paris 1909.
• Bourgeois, Emile and Lechevallier - Cherignard, Georges: Le biscuit de Sèvres - Recueil de modèles de la manufacture de Sèvres. Paris 1913.
• Dankert, Ludwig: Handbook of European porcelain. Munich 1984.
• Eriksen, Svend; Bellaique, Geoffrey de: Sèvres Porcelain - Vincennes and Sèvres from 1740 to 1800. London, Boston 1987.
• Grandjean, Serge; Brunet, Marcelle: Sèvres. Vol I & II Paris 1954.
• Haumont, Georges: La Manufacture de Sèvres au XVIIIe siècle. Lisbon 1939.
• Terrasson, Jeanne: Madame de Pompadour et la création de la Porcelaine de France. Paris 1969.
• David Battie (General Editor ): Sotheby's Concise Encyclopedia of Porcelain. Octopus Publishing Group Ltd.. , London, 1990, ISBN 0-7537-0058-1, page 107