from 1769 which enabled the application of new types of gilding and ground colours. This was perfected in the 19th century, with a focus on the development of new glazes and colours (simulating hardstones and marble), as well as on the creation of complex shapes and forms. The ‘reticulated’ or pierced bodies developed in the 19th century were particularly hard to achieve. They involved creating and firing a double porcelain wall with an intricate lattice of openings to the outer wall.
KNOW YOUR MARKS Sèvres porcelain is very often marked with two blue-painted ‘interlaced’ Ls. This in turn often encloses a letter or double letter, which acts as a code for the year in which the piece was produced. Thus, a teabowl with the letter A on it would have a production date of c. 1754. Sèvres is, therefore, an easy factory to document in this respect, as painters and gilders were allowed to add their ‘mark’ on pieces they worked on in order to identify themselves. Many of these painters and the pieces they worked on are noted in factory records (now held in the archives at Sèvres) and are consequently identifiable. These craftsmen often passed their skills down through the generations and so several painters of the same name can be mentioned in the records across decades.
Right Three Sèvres pot-pourri vases in the shape of ships, 1761, Waddesdon Image Library Below Left Blue L marks
enclosing date letter F and crescent painter’s mark for Louis-Denis Armand l’aîné
Bottom right Detail of the base of a plate, later redecorated and showing the ring of ‘spit-back’ typical of redecorated wares
Discover more Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire is home to a world-renowned collection of Sèvres porcelain, including three ship vases, of which only 10 exist in the world. It also houses a 235-piece dinner and dessert service, ordered by Marie-Antoinette in 1781 in bleu céleste designed for Louis XV. In the 1880s, Baron Edmond de Rothschild commissioned watercolours of the Sèvres dinner services. The Wallace Collection in London is another good place to see early Vincennes and Sèvres porcelain. The collection boasts examples of 18th-century soft-paste porcelain, including four icecream coolers from the Catherine the Great service.
‘Fake porcelain in the modern sense began in the 1820s when Sèvres was commanding high sums. Lavish wares made before the French Revolution, which were very valuable in England, were copied in London’
SPOTTING A FAKE
Just because a porcelain piece is marked as such does not necessarily mean it was produced at the Sèvres factory. The Sèvres mark has been frequently faked by other continental factories, most often in the 19th century. Sometimes inaccuracies are revealed by the confidence of the painted mark, other times by the quality of the piece and its decoration. Fake porcelain in the modern sense began in the 1820s when Sèvres was commanding high sums. Lavish wares made before the French Revolution were very valuable in England and were copied in London. Instead of trying to reproduce the soft paste of Sèvres, china dealers imported chests of old whiteglazed Sèvres porcelain that had been put into storage before the Revolution. Most had only slight faults but had been disregarded during manufacture. It was painted in London with careful copies of early Sèvres bird and flower painting and
sumptuous coloured grounds. A giveaway for these pieces is that they often have black specks in the white porcelain body, which happens sometimes when porcelain is re-fired. Another sign of a fake is the quality of the decoration: such as a vase with a badly painted scene, a tea bowl with a green ground colour which is too garish, or a gilded cartouche which is too bright and thickly painted. Vincennes and Sèvres gilding is often finely worked or ‘tooled’ with subtle patterns, producing a light touch that is very distinctive. All are a sign of blanks which were decorated at a later date. Colour is another giveaway. Rose (Rose Pompadour in England) and turquoise (bleu céleste) were 19th-century favourites, but finding them together is unlikely. Discrepancies between the date code and the painter’s mark are common in forged pieces. Highly flamboyant marks with considerable calligraphic thickening and thinning are also a warning sign.
Also look out for ‘spit-back’ – black speckling which usually appears around the rim but may appear anywhere, it is a strong warning sign.
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