Sèvres
he Vincennes (later Sèvres) factory was established in 1738 at the château de Vincennes, the locality that gave name to its first period. Louis XV- a shareholder-, became sole owner of the factory in 1753, and at the urging of his mistress, Madame de Pompadour, the porcelain works were moved to Sèvres in 1756. At the beginning -due to the lack of kaolin, the white clay indispensable to making true porcelain- the factory only made soft-paste porcelain. After kaolin deposits were discovered in Limoges in 1768, Sèvres made both types. To compete with Meissen, the factory established in Saxony by Augustus the Strong, the best talent was brought to work at the factory. Soon the Vincennes-Sèvres venture formulated a distinctive style of its own. The range of colors created for use with soft-paste- turquoise blue and pink most notably- had a wonderful depth. The thickness and brilliance of the gilding was unparalleled. The shape and decoration of its pieces gave expression to the frivolity and sheer joy of life of the society of the Ancien Regime. The factory never ceased to evolve, even in the difficult years of the French Revolution. It continued to reinvent itself, through the First Empire, the Restoration of the Bourbon monarchy and through the rest of the nineteenth and into the twentieth century, being still in existence today. For more information on each object, click on
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