Pair of Paris porcelain vases

Pair of Medicis vases made of porcelain on a pink background, decorated with women and a musician holding a bagpipe. The handles are gilded with masks of women located in small medallions. The vases are decorated with gilt motifs of flowers and arabesques. Romantic Period. Lack of gilding on the base.
Paris porcelain history began in the late 18th century: around the 1770s. The kaolin Limousin was commercialized, it resulted in the violation of the monopoly of the manufacture of porcelain that protected the royal manufactory of Sevres.
The French Revolution has severely shaken the industry in Paris with its attacks against the wealthy aristocracy. It has however contributed of the proliferation of factories finally released of the monopoly of Sevres. Besides, most of these factories usually had a short life. They had to suffer of economic crisis resulting of the Napoleonic wars.
Despite these difficulties, the maximum growth of Paris porcelain dates of the 1820s. Subsequently, their number continued to decline, the hope to make good money by making porcelain often was a disappointment. Hence the closure of factories or their move to the provinces were more and more frequent. Therefore, it is consistent to call Paris porcelain, hard porcelain, unmarked but dated by their style of the first part of the 19th century.


Bibliography:A Faÿ Hallé, La porcelaine européenne au xix° siècle, Paris, 1983, ed. Office du livre, p34