Surtout de table

Basket table made of biscuit porcelain blue and gold. Oval form on four legs in shape of a lion paws, stand two winged women, kneeling, holding the basket.
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.
The model of this basket is due to Jacob Petit. On his return to France in 1830 until his death in 1865, Jacob Petit porcelain factory established in Paris and Avon, near Fontainebleau, produced vases, cups, statuettes, groups and clocks polychromy shimmering very recognizable.
The model of this basket is very wise compare to the rest of his production, but Jacob Petit had a considerable influence and was widely copied. We found a copy of this basket in a drawing of the Bonneval factory catalog in Limoges, representing a basket supported by two kneeling women.



Bibliography:P. Dupont, Porcelaines françaises aux XVIIIème et XIXème siècles, ed. Baschet, Paris, 1987, p 143

A. Faÿ-Hallé, La porcelaine européenne au XIXème siècle, ed. Office du livre, Paris, 1983, p 123