Fig. 61.—Sèvres Vase; Jones Collection. (S.K.M.)
The Marquis Orry de Fulvey made an attempt to establish the soft paste porcelain works at Vincennes in 1741, but this was not a success. It was established again under new conditions in 1745, and after many experiments some important vases were made decorated with flowers in relief. The manufactory was reorganized again and removed to Sèvres, near Paris, in the year 1756. The products of the Sèvres works at this time were the fine vases with the bleu de roi, or bleu de Sèvres, and the lovely rose Pompadour colours, and numerous fancy articles, as heads of canes, buttons, snuff-boxes, needle-cases, also table services, &c. Many artists were employed to paint the flower and figure decorations; the latter were painted after the designs of Boucher, Vanloo, and others.
The soft paste porcelain was made from about 1700 to 1770. Some of the finest soft paste Sèvres porcelain may be seen in the Jones Collection at South Kensington, of which there are nearly sixty examples. The vase (Fig. 61) has a dark blue ground. The clock of Sèvres porcelain (Fig. 62) is a beautiful and unique example that was made especially for Marie Antoinette. The clock is mounted in ormoulu by Gouthière, and is in his best style of work.
The egg-shaped vase (Fig. 63) has a blue ground and is decorated with subject of Cupid and Psyche.
The artists Falconet, Clodion, La Rue, and Bachelier modelled and designed many of the statuettes, plaques, and vases for the Sèvres manufactory.
Cabinets and tables of the Louis Seize period were often inlaid with painted plaques of Sèvres ware, and have ormoulu mountings. This kind of furniture is exceedingly refined in design and workmanship, and reflects in a high degree the Pompadour and Du Barry period of French taste.
Fig. 62.—Sèvres Porcelain Clock; Jones Collection. (S.K.M.)
In 1768 beds of kaolin clay were found in France at St. Yrieix, near Limoges. Maquer, a chemist attached to the Sèvres factory, in 1769 submitted for the king’s (Louis XVI.) inspection at the Château of Versailles sixty pieces of the new hard porcelain made from this native clay.
