A pair of Paris porcelain vases

A pair of gilt porcelain vases on a square base. The handles are decorated with female masks inside of medallions. The body of the vase is ornamented with a cartouche representing on one side bucolic peaceful scenes with in the backgroud a church or a country side house, on the other some wrecking scenes with a destroyed ship or a drown woman.
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, p 34