A conical tea or coffee cup and saucer manufactured at the Vincennes or Sèvres factory circa 1755, painted with scattered flowers and parallel blue concentric lines (cerceaux, or ‘hoops’) and gilt dashes. Madame de Pompadour owned a tea set with several of these, they're somewhat rare.

A Mennecy lobed oval porcelain sugar bowl with painted enamel flower sprays, the lid with a blue painted entwined branch handle and brown painted rim. Circa 1760, on the underside is the factory mark of an incised D.V. Usually with a matching oval stand, but nicely decorated.

A circa 1740 Meissen lobed porcelain bowl decorated with two banded hedges on two sides and scattered groups of painted and gilt flowers, all in the Kakeimon style, and with a brown line along the scalloped rim. A typical Japanese motif of the time, seen on Meissen and Chantilly wares.

Dessert dish from the Rohan service https://collections.artsmia.org/art/707/

This is an old terracotta figure of a putto holding a bird with two rabbits by his side. It's "signed" by Boizot on the base but it's possibly a later copy. I can find no example of a Boucher painting or any etching picturing this fellow, so if anyone out there has seen him before, let me know.

Yep. Vote!

Saw this small dish at the Georgia Museum of Art last weekend, it's a (tea)cup plate. Popular in England during the first half of the 19th century and in the U.S., with glass versions in the early 20th. It was a coaster for your teacup while you cooled and drank your beverage out of the saucer.

Halloween costume from long ago. Ghouls just want to have fun.

A French (Creil) hand-painted transfer ware souvenir plate circa 1820, depicting the celebrity magic dog Munito performing a card trick. Amazing!

A circa 1745 Chantilly porcelain wine bottle cooler (seau à bouteille) lobed and decorated with a multi-flower plant on two sides, the twig handles with small encrusted flowers. The painting inspired by Meissen decoration, a short and sweet container for a half bottle of wine.

Porcelain from the Nymphenburg factory in a small museum at the palace #c18th #c18 #18thc

Visiting the studio of ceramicist/sculptor Sunkoo Yuh at the University of Georgia last Saturday on a field trip with the American Ceramics Circle. That tall sculpture he's standing next to comes in two pieces with two sculpted slots at the base so they may be transported by forklift! Amazing.

At the Georgia Porcelain and Decorative Arts Museum at the State Botanical Gardens in Athens, GA with the American Ceramics Circle, yesterday. Delighted to see so much European porcelain. ‘Roam if you want to’ among the displays.

A fine day at the High Museum in Atlanta yesterday with the American Ceramics Circle. Great lectures and a lovely afternoon with the collection.

A fine afternoon visiting the Swan House in Atlanta, with the American Ceramics Circle. Amazing Chinese export and a little bit of everything else, too.

A circa 1756 Sèvres tea cup and saucer, each painted with camaïeu pourpre depictions of putti on clouds and with flying birds on the cup. And I was lucky enough to find the sources: mid-century etchings inspired by Boucher, copies now at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (see ALT).

Two circa 1800 Chinese Export porcelain lobed dishes gilt and painted in the Sèvres style with latticework surrounding floral designs in reserves in the center of each. Both with a gilt monogram MCL in a rectangular reserve near the top rim. The dishes are thick and heavy, the decoration excellent.

Happy Birthday to Augustus III, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, born on this date in 1696. Inherited the Meissen porcelain factory from his father. And the grandfather of three kings of France, no less. Here's also a large plate from one of his dinner services, with inventory mark. (see ALT)

An assembled set of Sèvres porcelain salad bowls, with a raised gilt and blue ‘cabbage leaf’ (feuille de choux) design along the exterior and interior, and decorated with floral sprays on the interior. With date marks for 1756-64. For serving a large salad for the table, not the usual 'side' bowl.

A 19th century baluster-shaped molded porcelain ewer with scrolling and feathered gilt decoration on a lobed pedestal base, the handle with gilt raised strap work; possibly Samson, or Minton, in the style of the Sèvres factory’s "pot à l’eau à la romaine". Nicely gilt, even if it is a copy.

A molded soft-paste porcelain sugar bowl with underglaze blue lambrequin decoration above molded gadroons and a lid with similar lambrequins along the edge and a blue-painted knop. Saint-Cloud, first quarter of the 18th century. Fairly simple with fine decoration, inspired by a silver form. (ALT)

A 1795 Sèvres porcelain plate (assiette unie) decorated with a bouquet of flowers in the well and three gilt oval reserves along the border on a bleu céleste ground, the rims with gilt lines surrounding a gilt foliate motif. Decorated by Laroche and Girard; a fine bouquet in the center. (see ALT)

A porcelain snuff box with hinged lid manufactured at Meissen circa 1750. Decorated with sprays of roses or ‘woodcut flowers’ (Holzschnittblumen) painted in polychrome colors, with the underside of the lid decorated with a still life of a basket with flower arrangement, placed on a tabletop. Sweet.

A set of five Japanese porcelain dishes molded with lobed rims and painted with an asymmetrical polychrome flower design of chrysanthemums and butterflies above two banded hedges in blue. Hizen (Arita) ware, 18th-19th century. A fine set, nicely-decorated. (see ALT)

A matching pair of Chinese Export porcelain Kangxi-era plates decorated in the Kakiemon style, picturing the ‘Hob in the Well’ scene possibly painted by Dutch or English decorators, circa 1710. Painted and gilt with an underglaze blue diaper pattern and reserves. Spot the slight variations!

Photos I took a while ago of one of my favorite places in Paris, the Musée Nissim de Camondo, closed for renovations and reopening in 2027. An amazing and later tragic story. Spectacular 18th century interiors with fine Sèvres and Chantilly porcelain dinner services, too. Go when it reopens!

A circa 1730-35 du Paquier tureen and stand decorated with Chinese-inspired scenes within fan-shape cartouches, now in the Frick Museum. You have to love those fish handles. (see ALT)

On this day in 1735 Louis XV signed letters patent allowing Ciquaire Cirou of Chantilly the right to make porcelain ‘in the Japanese style’ for the next 20 years. The factory had already been making porcelain, but it was nice to get a royal permit and endorsement. Here’s some of my Chantilly pieces.

Happy Birthday to Sèvres porcelain painter Jean-Louis Morin, born on this day in 1732. He specialized in "marine scenes" such as the one he painted on this cup and saucer from 1777. 🎂

A circa 1757 Sèvres baluster jug (broc ordinaire) decorated with scattered sprays of flowers and with gilt lines along the handle, collar and base and gilt dentils along the spout. Simple but effective, part of the morning toilette.

A circa 1765 Sèvres soft-paste biscuit porcelain figure of a young girl holding a guitar, on a square base. "La Petite Fille au Guitare" in the factory records, modeled by Falconet. Nicely modeled.

A small collection of 18th century French and German porcelain snuff boxes and scent bottles. As one has next to the kitchen counter in their small Manhattan apartment. Ha!

On this day in 1673 Louis XIV granted the faïencier Louis Poterat of Rouen the privilège to set up a manufactory of porcelain in the Chinese style. He did, but we only know of about a dozen pieces to survive. Here's one of them, a potpourri now in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City.

Here's a variety of English matching tea wares I've accumulated over the years. All with various Worcester marks from the 1770s and decorated with a lightly-gilt imari iron-red and blue ‘sworl’, design. Inspired by Japanese imports it was later named by Worcester as the Queen Charlotte pattern.

Up early in the U.S. for Sacred Ceramics: Devotional Images in European Porcelain, a symposium coming live today from the V&A. Coffee served here in porcelain cups and saucers, of course. 😄

A 1789 Sèvres porcelain three-sided lobed stand decorated with eight floral sprays, a gilt dentil edge and a blue line with gilt dashes along the rim. With the mark 'MM' for 1789 and the painter’s mark of a stippled crown for Jean-Charles Sioux l’aîné, active 1752-92. Handy for sweets or ice cups.

An assembled pair of porcelain tea cups and saucers each painted with sprays and sprigs of roses in camaïeu bleu (monochrome blue), and with gilt dentil rims and gilt harebells on the cup handle spines. Sèvres, with date marks for 1765 and 1772. Nicely decorated, probably once part of a tea set.

I collect mostly French 18th century porcelain, but when it comes to British porcelain we all have to acknowledge William Billingsley as one of the great decorators. He worked seemingly everywhere, but on this date in 1774 he began working at Derby. Here's one of his famous Derby plates. (see ALT)

A porcelain snuff box with hinged gilt silver mounts manufactured at Mennecy circa 1750. In the shape of a recumbent dog with suckling puppy painted in brown and red and with a spray of flowers on the exterior and interior of the lid. Sweet.

A circa 1735 bowl manufactured at Chantilly and painted in polychrome colors in the kakiemon style illustrating a squirrel (tree rat) with banded hedges. With a flaring scalloped edge and a raised inside rim with a brown line, possibly intended as a nesting rim for a cover. Crazy squirrel!

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An 18th century Japanese "Ryukyuan Qiangjin" red-lacquered box decorated with a gilt and incised phoenix (ho-ho bird) and cherry blossoms on the bifurcated peach-shaped lid, and with blossoms on tendrils along both tiers of the box. Still haven't figured out what to put in it... my kind of problem.

Sèvres écuelle and stand with rose marbré pattern painted by Charles-Nicolas Dodin, dated 1762. At Bonhams, London (est. £30,000-50,000) #c18th #c18 #18thc

A few years ago I won at auction a large cache of autographs of performers from the Comédie Française, all from the 19th and the 20th century. Fun and interesting stuff. Buried in the lot was this signed calling card, the auction house had missed it and so had I until I brought the lot home.

Picked up this weighty tome at auction a few years ago: The Art of the Old English Potter (1883) by Marc-Louis Solon. Once employed at Sèvres, Solon made Minton the epicenter of pâte-sur-pâte decoration. The book is a lovely overview of pre-Wedgwood pottery with some rather nice illustrations.

A circa 1767 Sèvres gilt double oval bottle cooler with gilt acanthus leaf handles, decorated with scattered sprays of flowers and fruit and with a blue line with gilt dashes along the serpentine rim and base. With a removable porcelain panel that separates two bottles. Chilled liqueur anyone?

Long ago Chinese potters were applying molded decoration to porcelain, and then Meissen copied them, then Saint-Cloud did it, Bow, etc. Here's a photo I took at the Zwinger in Dresden of a display that shows the decoration before it's applied. And a couple of Saint-Cloud and Bow examples I own.

A large hand-blown glass goblet on a square plinth base etched with a rose on one side and with the scrolling monogram "RC" within a ribboned laurel reserve on the opposite side. British, circa 1820. I've yet to drink out of it, better get on that.

A circa 1735 Chantilly porcelain tobacco jar with Kakiemon decoration, decorated in polychrome colors on one side with an insect and flowering plant and on the opposite side with a flowering tobacco plant. Kind of rare to see a tobacco plant painted 'in the Japanese style', but here it makes sense.

A Louis XVI mahogany music stand (table à pupitre), circa 1775, on a carved pedestal with three curved legs ending in gilt-bronze casters. The easel top contains two drawers with ring pulls, one with dividers for an ink well and pounce pot. Stamped by the ébéniste Martin Carlin; an austere design.