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Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres More Furniture and Collectibles

A maker of exemplary European ceramics for hundreds of years, Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres has produced porcelain of the highest quality since 1740.

The factory enjoyed royal patronage from its earliest days, and its most prominent patrons in the late 1700s — King Louis XV of France and his mistress, Madame de Pompadour — commissioned some of the period’s most elegant and striking pieces (only the truly wealthy could afford porcelain at this time). The company was originally established in Vincennes but was moved at the request of Madame de Pompadour, in 1756, to Sèvres, near Versailles, so that its operations would be closer to her château.

Sèvres became a mighty and much-revered factory working under a special grant from King Louis XV — the company’s owner as of 1759 and whose abundance of orders for special state gifts put financial strain on the company. Madame de Pompadour is said to have commissioned Sèvres to create an entire indoor garden of porcelain botanicals, for example.

While Sèvres gained a sterling reputation for its soft-paste porcelain wares, the company was late in entering into the production of hard-paste porcelain.

Hard-paste porcelain is the most common type of Chinese porcelain, then a widely exported and profitable product that was not made in Europe until the 18th century. The resources at Sèvres were largely relegated to meeting the demands of Louis XV, and secondly, it did not acquire the secret formula for hard-paste porcelain until 1761. Until it obtained the coveted secrets behind hard-paste porcelain from a chemist named Pierre-Antoine Hannong — and, years later, gained access to the elusive raw materials to make hard-paste porcelain — Sèvres produced soft-paste porcelain for decades that was widely celebrated but is comparatively a far weaker type as opposed to the hard-paste productions of the company’s rival, Meissen, in Saxony, the first to produce true porcelain outside of Asia.

The artisans at Sèvres applied the rarest and most difficult-to-produce colors to their decorative objects and dinner services. One such color, the bright bleu de roi, became the manufacturer’s signature shade and is found on many of their objects. Sèvres also experimented with rarely glazed or unglazed works that bore no decoration at all — bisque porcelain, French for “biscuit,” refers to unadorned white porcelain sculptures made at Sèvres that resemble white marble after being kiln-fired.

Sèvres marks were applied over the glaze or rendered with cuts by a sharp tool — authentic Sèvres porcelain is most commonly marked with two interlaced Ls that are painted in blue and enclose a third letter. Painters and potters were tasked with affixing marks to record their role in the creation of a particular piece, and as a lot of these artisans’ names are recorded in archival factory materials — and there is also much to be learned at the Sèvres museum — it’s likely that you can accurately identify your Sèvres piece.

Find antique and vintage Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres vases, urns, sculptures and more on 1stDibs.

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Creator: Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres
Sèvres Nicholas & Alexandra Medallion Commemorating Visit to the Factory, 1896
By Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres
Located in St. Catharines, ON
In bisque porcelain, depicting the Imperial couple facing right, the tsar wearing military uniform, the empress, a kokoshnik (Russian headdress), inscribed NICHOLAS II and ALEXANDRA,...
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1890s French Classical Roman Antique Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres More Furniture and Collectibles

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Pair of Sevres Louis Phillippe plates
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Pair of Sevres Style Swan Cream Cups
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Tea Service with Sevres and Château des Tuileries Marks
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Located in Paris, FR
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A Set of Three 1840's Sevres Porcelain Cabinet Plates
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Set of 5 French Sèvres Portrait Plates of Different Ladies of the French Court
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Set of five French Sèvres portrait plates, each painted with different ladies of the French court, artist signed Maglin. They are from 1837. Each...
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Pair of Perfume Burners from the Manufacture de Sèvres, Early 20th Century.
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Royal and diplomatic gifts. Just as at Meissen, Sèvres was a popular factory for the commission and production of royal and diplomatic gifts, as well as for direct purchases by royal families and the aristocracy. Marie Antoinette was an early supporter, ordering vase garnitures, teawares and dinner-services. In 1784 the queen ordered a sumptuous service decorated with roses, faux pearls and pansies in medallions, on a carmine ground. It was intended for use at Versailles, but upon its completion it was given instead by Louis XVI to Gustav III as a diplomatic gift commemorating the Swedish king’s visit. Unused to self-sacrifice, the French queen did not wait long for her own replacement service in the same pattern. Similarly, in 1782 Louis-Philippe de Bourbon, duc de Chartes, ordered an elaborate bleu celeste service for the common law wife of his friend, Nathaniel Parker Forth, British Special Envoy to France. Each piece is finely painted birds to the center and to the rim based on images found in The Natural History of Birds by the Comte de Buffon (see below). The service eventually came into the collection of Alfred de Rothschild at Halton House, Buckinghamshire, before being acquired by Desmarais family in late 1990s. In the 18th century, porcelain was one of the most highly prized commodities in the world. Only the very wealthy could afford objects made of this fragile material, which was shipped at great expense from the Far East. Porcelain was developed in China around 2,000 years ago but the recipe was a closely guarded secret. It was not until the early 18th century that Johann Friedrich Böttger discovered the magic formula for making true hard-paste porcelain, and in 1710 the Meissen factory was established. Magnificent Very fine antique Museum quality extremely rare enamel cobalt-blue 18-karat gold hand painted porcelain basket...
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Manufacture Nationale De Sèvres more furniture and collectibles for sale on 1stDibs.

Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres more furniture and collectibles are available for sale on 1stDibs. These distinctive items are frequently made of porcelain and are designed with extraordinary care. There are many options to choose from in our collection of Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres more furniture and collectibles, although gray editions of this piece are particularly popular. Prices for Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres more furniture and collectibles can differ depending upon size, time period and other attributes — on 1stDibs, these items begin at $1,600 and can go as high as $3,950, while a piece like these, on average, fetch $2,775.

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