Sevres

The flowers are exquisite!
Sèvres has been called the essential French porcelain manufacturer.                                                                                                                                                                                     We are delighted to offer for sale this beautiful pair of Sèvres soft-paste porcelain tureens made 1773-1782.                                                                                             Decorated with delicate polychrome flowers, they are marked with the exclusive royal cipher in underglaze puce (a crowned interlaced ‘L’ mark), the painter’s mark for Michel-Louis Chauveaux (active 1773–82).
The painting on our pair of small tureens is exceptional.                                                                                                                                                                                                            Note how the polychrome colors of the flowers sink into the white, soft-paste porcelain (see image #2).                                                                                                                  If one compares the painting on these tureens to the painting on French hard-paste porcelains from later in the 18th century, one sees that the colors on the hard-paste porcelains do not sink in but seem to rest on top of the porcelain.
Dimensions: 4 1/4″ x 9 1/2″ x 6″ tall Condition:
Excellent with some gilt expertly touched in on the unseen place at the top of each tureen where the cover sits (see images #5 and #7).
Price: $4,600
Background of Sevres Porcelain:
In 1751 Sèvres became the factory of the King of France, Louis XV.
The factory produced a lovely white soft-paste porcelain decorated with naturally painted flowers in various colors. Porcelains decorated in this style were essential to the Sèvres production, especially during the early years. Fine quality and elegant design made these porcelains highly sought after and expensive. Combinations of flowers, including roses, daisies, orange blossoms, violets, hyacinths from Holland, daffodils from Constantinople, and lilies of the valley, were all used to decorate Sèvres porcelains.
* See “les porcelainiers du XVIIIe siècle français” with a preface by Serge Gauthier
** See “French 18th century Porcelain at the Wadsworth Atheneum” by Linda Roth and Clare Le Corbeiller