MEET THE MAKER - Porcelain de Sevres; for the love of a woman

writetotalk
Jun 9, 2014
2 min read

The secrets of making high quality porcelain eluded the western world for centuries. Time and again, potters throughout Europe attempted to discover the mystery so that they could replicate the beauty of the pieces that were imported, at great expense, from the Orient.

The history of Porcelain de Sevres began in 1738, when two French brothers by the name of Dubois, with the assistance of King Louis XV, set up a research unit in a former horse-riding school in Vincennes, near Paris. They hoped to produce the best French porcelain ever by building upon the knowledge they had gained from their prior experience at a porcelain facility in Chantilly.

For three years the Dubois brothers experimented, but success eluded them and eventually they were fired. One of their employees, Francois Gravant, gathered and sold the results of the experiments to a member of the French Court. By 1745, soft paste porcelain were well received and a particular favorite of Madame de Pompadour, the King’s chief mistress. She had considerable influence on the French Court and accounts of her life count her patronage and influence on the Sèvres porcelain factory as one of her most lasting achievements.

Given the increasing demand for French-made porcelain, the facilities at Vincennes were deemed to be inadequate and in 1753 the factory moved to Sèvres, on land King Louis XV had given Madame de Pompadour, adjacent to her residence at Bellevue Castle. Anxious to please her, the King purchased the factory in 1760 and proceeded to equip it with the best facilities. Under his direction, the factory was officially given a royal designation. It remained a royal enterprise until the French Revolution, when it was nationalized.

King Louis XV served as the Sèvres factory’s most enthusiastic advocate. Once a year, he hosted a porcelain sale at his personal apartments in Versailles, where it was made clear to the attendees that the levels of esteem they would enjoy in the Court was going to be directly related to the amounts of their purchases. The royal patronage meant that Sèvres was awarded a number of lucrative commissions for official gifts of state. When financial strains on the French treasury led to a meltdown of silver and gold table services previously used by the wealthy, large dinner services in porcelain were purchased as replacement.