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.

An early Qing/ 17th century Chinese porcelain hexagonal cup and saucer decorated with a floral and lappet pattern in underglaze blue on the exterior and a border of alternating horizontal bands on the inside rim of the cup, with matching decoration on the saucer. Thinly potted and nicely decorated.

Happy 300th Birthday to William Duesbury of the Derby Porcelain Factory and Chelsea-Derby, born on this date in 1725. Here's a Derby version of a Sèvres feuille-de-choux (cabbage leaf) flower decorated and gilt plate, circa 1820. 🎂

Milk jug with raised handle (pot à lait à anse relevé) and round sugar bowl (sucrier rond), made by the Sèvres factory in 1787 for the Queen's dairy at Rambouillet. Recently acquired by the Musée national de Céramique #c18th #c18 #18thc

A Sèvres-style matching gilt white porcelain coffee cup and saucer with painted floral decoration between gilt bands along the upper perimeter of both, and with gilt stars, dots and leaves in rows beneath. Made at the Comte d'Artois factory, circa 1795.

A circa 1750 Chelsea porcelain small octagonal bowl decorated with a Japanese Kakiemon-inspired ‘Lady in the Pavilion’ pattern with a woman standing near a birdcage placed on a veranda, all framed by tasseled curtains and birds in flight. Four inches in diameter; perhaps a finger bowl?

A large white porcelain potpourri of baluster shape with encrusted flowers and matching reticulated cover, manufactured at Saint-Cloud circa 1735. Designed as a gadrooned vase perched on a mound of rocks with vegetation. A bit over-the-top, but that's the rococo style for you.

On this date in 1771 the Sèvres porcelain manufactory delivered a dinner service of 322 pieces to Madame du Barry. It was decorated with the floral cypher "D B" in the center of the well of the plates and with swags and urns; here's a soup bowl from that service now in the Art Institute of Chicago.

A guidebook to the gardens of the Château de Chantilly, Promenades ou Itinéraire des Jardins de Chantilly by René de Girardin. Published by Chez Desenne in 1791, First Edition; 60 pages and 20 plates in blue paste-paper boards. Haven't gotten to use it yet so this gives me a good excuse to return.

A porcelain rectangular snuff box with a hinged lid with gilt metal mounts manufactured at Meissen circa 1750. Decorated with sprays of roses or ‘woodcut flowers’ (Holzschnittblumen), with the underside of the lid decorated with a vase with flower arrangement. Simple, elegant, butterfly included.

Readers interested in women's contributions to the decorative arts will also be interested in this imminently forthcoming book: Lady Charlotte Schreiber, Extraordinary Art Collector by @carolinemccaff.bsky.social www.lundhumphries.com/products/lad... @lhartbooks.bsky.social, Sept 2025

A circa 1740 Saint-Cloud porcelain 'trembleuse' tea cup and saucer with three lobed and scalloped rims and a matching saucer with a raised gallery, all decorated with a design of bamboo, pine and prunus with banded hedges in the Japanese Kakiemon style, the cup with a stylized “twig” handle. Fun.

I encountered at The Met Cloisters yesterday (upper Manhattan) these amazing 12th-13th century French carved limestone columns and pilasters. Wavy “cascades of water”, just remarkable.

A porcelain quatrefoil bowl manufactured at Chantilly circa 1740, painted with tight bouquets along the sides and everted rim and fitted with a later incised gilt metal insert with a removable pound pot/sander and inkwell. An interesting new use for a bowl, and with a nicely-painted bug, too.

Two circa 1755 Sèvres dinner plates each decorated with a blue and gold basket-weave pattern beneath the rims and four gilt scrolling reserves containing flower sprays; with a larger flower bouquet in the center. Madame de Pompadour purchased a set like these in 1758. An interesting pattern. (ALT)

The oldest piece in my ceramic collection: A Campanian black-glazed pottery kylix, a terracotta shallow cup with two upturned handles and covered in a black glaze with four impressed palmettes in the center of the well. 4th-3rd c. BCE. Simply potted, no special decoration, still elegant.

Just felt like posting a photo of a few pieces of the Vincennes and Sèvres porcelain I’ve collected over the years, displayed in a vitrine in my living room. Blue, with flying birds.

A circa 1840 'Veduta' porcelain cup and saucer manufactured at the Kõnigliche Porzellan-Manufaktur (KPM) factory in Berlin, the flaring cup with an Empire-style scrolling swan’s-neck handle and resting on three matte gilt paw feet, illustrated with a view of the Sanssouci Palace. Scenic.

A circa 1740 Chantilly porcelain cup and saucer set painted in polychrome colors in the kakiemon style. With a light brown line on the rim of both the cup and saucer and both illustrated with a design of two banded sheaths, the cup handle designed as a twig with painted leaves and flowers. Sweet.

A circa 1785 assembled Chamberlains Worcester porcelain breakfast set, with three ribbed coffee cups with ring handles and saucers along with two large plates and an associated smaller plate, all decorated with bands of underglaze blue and scrolling gilt leaf decoration. A fine and elegant pattern.

A two-handled krater-form bough pot on pedestal manufactured by the Chantilly factory circa 1760. With C-scroll handles beneath an aperture surrounded by open flower blossoms alternately painted in blue and ochre, and decorated on two sides with a swag of porcelain flowers framed by leaves.

Cup and saucer, ca. 1730, by Meissen Manufactory Class: Ceramics-Porcelain Medium: Hard-paste porcelain https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/199187

I purchased this figure of this little guy a few years back, it's probably 19th century but may be older, European factory unknown. Based on a popular Jacques Callot etching, a hunchback musician playing a faux musical instrument. Only 3 1/4" tall, he's a fun character. (details in ALT)

Two small porcelain pomade pots and lids with painted enamel flower sprays and red berry knops on the covers, manufactured at the Mennecy factory circa 1750. One has painted flowers underneath to hide three kiln firing imperfections.

A circa 1765 Sèvres biscuit porcelain small figure of a young girl (La Fille au Nid) holding a nest containing two birds, the figure standing on a square base. Not marked, but probably modeled by Falconet. Sweet, a fine addition to a table setting to replace the sugar sculptures of the time.

An 18th century drawing of a decorative panel design, in colored chalk on wove paper, picturing floral swags along the edges and with a bouquet and a painter’s palette design in the center. Fairly simple, drawn with a light touch.

A circa 1730 Meissen porcelain baluster-shaped sugar caster, gilt and decorated with a flowering tree emanating from banded hedges, and with a flying bird on the reverse. With a domed puce painted and reticulated artichoke top. Based on a silver prototype, ready for sprinkling powdered sugar.

Now on display for the first time, all 300 pieces from the Macdonald Collection of 17C and #c18th #c18 #18thc Japanese and Japanese-inspired ceramics at the George R Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto

A circa 1755 gilt porcelain scent bottle with two stoppers manufactured at the Chelsea factory, of rococo form decorated with flowers sprays. A stopper of a monkey’s head protrudes from the top, another from the side, both attached with chains and gold mounts. Fun and silly and useful all at once.

A Sèvres porcelain silver form-inspired monteith (seau crénelé), or glass cooler made at the Sèvres factory circa 1767. Painted with scattered flowers below a crenelated and gilt upper rim and with two gilt and painted acanthus leaf handles. Rinse those wine glasses between courses!

A circa 1820 Coalport porcelain set of two gilt cups with ‘London’ handles and a matching saucer brightly decorated with flowers and banded hedges in a loosely-interpreted Kakiemon style. No more "empty white space" you see in the Japanese decoration that inspired it, so fill those gaps...

This is an old repair underneath a circa 1825 Paris porcelain cup and saucer, intricately gilt on a dark blue ground. Staples were once used to repair or keep cracks from spreading, as you may see a trace of the crack here on the top of the saucer. Nicely done, 19th century repairer.

A pleasantly-appointed bedroom in the Jacquemart-André, Paris. Salle de Bain on the right. I’ll have my coffee while sitting in the Louis XVI marquise by the fireplace, please.

Didn’t know this apparently popular gravesite-monument in stone and bronze, Charles Pigeon with his wife Thérèse, in bed. On view in the Montparnasse Cemetery, Paris. I swear she’s about to say: “I don’t care what late-night show you want to watch, just pick something and let me get some sleep!”

A series of window displays of jewelry and descriptions in the Musée des arts décoratifs, Paris. Impressive.

At the Petit Palais, Paris. Voltaire in the corner, Meissen monkey band in its natural habitat, a Sèvres tea set en bleu céleste. Another museum worth a visit.

Interiors in the Hôtel de La Marine, Paris. Worth a visit.

Mantequillero de porcelana Meissein (1774-1814). En la Galería de las Colecciones Reales de Madrid.

A 1763 Sèvres round broth bowl, or écuelle with cover and round stand, decorated with a 'frises riches' pattern of purple shells, gilt hatchwork and floral swags. The bowl has two gilt entwined branch handles, the domed lid with a painted and gilt berry and twig finial. Textile-like design!

Last week at the Zwinger Museum in Dresden I passed by this small, solitary display in the basement facing the W.C./bathrooms. Annoyed that such finely-decorated pieces were relegated to an obscure subterranean hallway I soon realized they were porcelain chamber pots! Nicely done, ceramic curators.