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A circa 1700-1730 European gilt bronze chandelier made with imported Japanese porcelain, mostly 16 tea cups and saucers adapted into candle holders. East meets West, creating a remarkable light fixture. In the Kyushu Ceramics Museum, Arita, Japan.

Incorporating one jar, two bowls with lids and a set of tea bowls and saucers. All Japanese porcelain.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 4h

Any 1960s-70s Tarzan, especially Mike Henry.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 12h

A fairly large white porcelain Meissen cassowary (made in 1985, a copy of the 18th century original) now residing in a garden in the Kyushu Ceramic Museum. About three or four feet tall but still looks like he's ready to stomp on Tokyo.

Explanatory plaque. 'Joann' (Kaendler) typo, should be 'Johann'. Made me laugh!

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 16h

The Matsuura railway line linking Imari and Arita in Kyushu, Japan, is a single-car line that connects the two towns. On the Arita station platform are displays of locally-made modern decorative porcelain tiles showing flower designs first made over 400 years ago. My kind of train station.

A rather large display in the center of the train platform. Well done.

A lovely display of Kakiemon decoration on white tiles.

A small train! A 24-minute ride between two important towns for the Japanese porcelain trade from the 1600s through 1800s.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

At the Kyushu Ceramic Museum, where even the bathrooms have porcelain with traditional Japanese decoration.

Meissen and Japanese porcelain exhibition!

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Old Japanese wall construction display, in an Imari city museum. I love this kind of thing.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Sunset, Imari, Japan. The bridge at the bottom is the location of the loading dock that porcelain was shipped from during the 17th through 19th century.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Okawachiyama Village near Imari, Japan. If you’re going to have 30 potteries making porcelain you might as well have a porcelain bridge, too.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Very large porcelain roosters decorating a bridge entrance. Imari River, Japan.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

At the Kira Revolving Sushi Bar in Kyoto. Order what you you want or just grab it off the conveyor belt as it goes by your booth. No Michelin stars here, but that’s not the point. Fun.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

A statue of a standing guardian dog at the entrance of a Buddhist temple in Kyoto. Just doing his job. But my western eyes see a very good boy with a ball in his mouth that you’re never ever going to get back, or at least for the next 20 seconds.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Visited the home and studio of ceramicist Kawai Kanjiro, (1890-1966) and now a museum, on a rainy day in Kyoto. Not one, but two kilns on the property, and why not?

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Reposted by Richard White

neil guthrie @nguthrie.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Chinese blue and white ceramics (late 17C to #c18 #c18th #18thc) from the collection of James Abbott McNeill Whistler, on loan to Tate Britain from The Hunterian, Glasgow

Four shelves of blue and white ceramic plates and vessels

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Two jars with covers in the Tokyo National Museum. From a distance they look like typical creamware sugar bowls from the 18th century or later, but no. Chinese ‘Ding’ ware with lotus decoration, Song Dynasty/11th century! Remarkable.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I have a collection of snuff boxes, but only one of this kind. A 19th century French niello (here, etched silver) rectangular box. I especially like the decoration of meandering grape vines, it's perhaps somewhat understated.

A FRENCH NIELLO RECTANGULAR SNUFF BOX
19TH CENTURY
A silver niello box with hinged lid decorated on all sides with trailing vines and grapes, and with a centered rectangular cartouche on the lid, the interior of the box gilt.
With the ‘Minerva’ 2nd discharge mark of Paris and the maker’s mark ROUSSET stamped inside the right edge of the lid.
3 1/2 in. (8.9 cm) in length; 1 in. (2.6 cm) in height, 1 1/2 in. (13 cm) in depth.

Nicely-preserved interior, not much wear to the silver. Perhaps that's a gilt layer inside.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Did I need to buy another Japanese porcelain bowl? No. Did I want to? Apparently so. Paging Dr. Freud! Et voiçi, an octagonal Japanese bowl with Kakiemon decoration, circa 1700.

A JAPANESE OCTAGONAL KAKIEMON BOWL
EDO PERIOD (1615-1868), 18TH CENTURY
A white porcelain octagonal bowl painted in enamel polychrome colors in the kakiemon style with flowers and leaves in pale blue along the exterior and alternating panels of gilt red flowers and blue and green leaves on the cavetto. Along the everted rim is a series of gilt red flowers with trails of leaves and flowers in light-blue.

The interior of the bowl. That shade of blue appears on many Japanese ceramics from the late 1600s and early 1700s.
MEASUREMENTS
Diameter: 8 1/2 in. (21.6 cm) in diameter, 4 3/4 in. (11 cm) in depth.
With Warren E. Cox Associates, 6 East 39th Street, New York.
Doyle, New York, Sale 2tAS03, Asian Works of Art, 17 September 2026, lot 359.

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Reposted by Richard White

neil guthrie @nguthrie.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Worcester porcelain from the Marshall collection #c18 #c18th #18thc @ashmoleanmuseum.bsky.social

There are five of these floor-to ceiling vitrines of Worcester porcelain, mostly NOT the characteristic blue and white wares made by the factory

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

While doing research I came across this part-tea service in The Huntington Library and Museum, San Marino, CA. A tea caddy, cup, saucer and teapot made at the Sèvres porcelain factory circa 1758. Chinese style (raised prunus decoration) meets Meissen style (scattered flower sprigs in blue). Lovely.

Delicately-decorated, a 'not too showy' design.

Huntington website description:
Teapot
MAKER: Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory (French, active from 1756 to the present)
CLASSIFICATIONS: DECORATIVE ARTS
DATE: 1758
MEDIUM: soft-paste porcelain
DIMENSIONS: 4 3/4 x 8 in. (12.1 x 20.3 cm.)
CREDIT LINE: The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of MaryLou Boone STATUS: On view
OBJECT NUMBER: 2010.6.21

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

'Amethyst' and 'hedgehog' are not words I've ever seen put together, but... watching an online auction live from Sotheby's Cologne this morning and there it was, lot 587. 11 inches wide? That's big. And selling for 35,840 euros! OK...

An amethyst figure of a hedgehog with silver-gilt mounts, probably Idar-Obarstein, late 20th century.
With silver-gilt paws and head below the amethyst spines, small jewelled eyes, the base marked '925' for silver, within a set of other marks

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Looking through auctions today and found this remarkable life-size iron snake in Bonhams (New York) Fine Japanese and Korean sale (lot 989), going on now. Made circa 1915 by Tanaka Tadayoshi, life-size with individually-riveted iron scales. The hinged jaw has a moveable tongue. Amazing. (see ALT)

TANAKA TADAYOSHI (ALSO KNOWN AS MUNEYOSHI, DIED 1950)
A Large Iron Jizai Okimono (Articulated Model) of a Snake Taisho era (1912-1926), circa 1915
FINE JAPANESE & KOREAN ART
16 September 2026, 10:00 EDT
New York
Estimate: US$25,000 - US$35,000
A fully articulated model of a snake, constructed from numerous individually forged russet-iron plates graduating in size, with hidden joints inside the body, the head incised with scales and fitted with a hinged jaw opening to reveal a movable tongue, the eyes highlighted in gilt; signed on the underside of the jaw Muneyoshi 52 1/8in (132.4cm) long
A pupil of Takase Kōzan (see lots 984 and 987), a celebrated maker of articulated animals, Tanaka Tadayoshi is best known for superb dragons, snakes, shachihoko (dragon fish), and other creatures made during the first half of the 20th century.
Of all the categories of late Edo-period and Meiji-era artefact eagerly collected outside Japan over the last 150 years, articulated animals have left the least trace of documentary evidence concerning their background and development. Even the Japanese word for them, jizai or jizai okimono, appears to be a post-Edo term. Yet regardless of their obscure origins, these displays of Asian dexterity perfectly matched trends in Western Orientalist taste in the closing decades of the nineteenth century. In Europe, they were first highlighted in the Parisian journal Le Japon Artistique (1888-1891), which reproduced an articulated frog in three different positions and described it in detail. They were not reintroduced to Japanese audiences, however, until October 1983, when several examples were displayed in the special exhibition Nihon no kinkō (Japanese Metalwork) held at Tokyo National Museum.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

A Japanese porcelain octagonal bowl, Edo Period, 18th century. Decorated in enamel polychrome colors in the kakiemon style with cherry blossoms on the exterior and a flowering vine connected to a ring of interconnected flowers on the interior. Amazing colors. (see ALT)

A JAPANESE OCTAGONAL KAKIEMON BOWL
HIZEN (ARITA) WARE, EDO PERIOD (1615-1868), 18TH CENTURY
8 3/8 in. (21.3 cm) in diameter, 4 1/8 in. (10.5 cm) in depth.
 Bonham’s, New York, Sale 27519, “First Call of the Pheasant;” Japanese Art Offerings of the New Year, 20 January 2022, lot 58.

The exterior of the bowl. Finely-painted flowers.

The interior of the bowl. A lovely arrangement of colors.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

And here's one of these cups with a cover at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, here sitting in a matching but crazy tray. Much more detailed decoration; to my eyes the decoration is all rather science fiction.

From the Met's website:
Title: Cup with cover and tray (gobelet à lait et corbeille carré)
Manufactory: Sèvres Manufactory (French, 1740–present)
Decorator: Attributed to Charles-Louis Méreaud (French, active 1756–80)
Date: 1764
Culture: French, Sèvres
Medium: Soft-paste porcelain
Dimensions: Cup: 5 1/16 in. (12.9 cm); Tray: 6 1/2 × 6 1/2 in. (16.5 × 16.5 cm)
Classification: Ceramics-Porcelain
Credit Line: The Jack and Belle Linsky Collection, 1982
Object Number: 1982.60.180a, b, .181

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

A Sèvres porcelain two-handled cup (gobelet à lait), circa 1761. So big you need two handles. Missing the cover and saucer, but still worth having because the decoration is rather fine.

A SÈVRES TWO-HANDLED CUP (GOBELET À LAIT)
WITH DATE MARK FOR 1761
A two-handled porcelain cup manufactured circa 1761, decorated with a frize riche gilt red and blue trellis and rocaille pattern on a blue lapis ground below the rim and with swags of scattered flowers along the perimeter. Both handles are decorated with blue lines and gilt harebells, the cup with gilt dentils on both the exterior and interior rim.
Under the cup are interlaced Ls in underglaze blue with the date mark H for 1761. Incised mark of an L.F. possibly the mark of the répareur Louis Lefief.

Side view, with one of the handles. The first examples, most with knopped lid and underplate, appear in 1752; the form remained popular through the 1770s.

Quite a combination of rococo decoration above and plain flower swags below.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I bought this Sèvres biscuit porcelain bust of Denis Diderot years ago after seeing an original at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. One of many porcelain busts of French celebrities and famous folk made at Sèvres during the 1870s and 1880s. I like that shirt, I was born in the wrong century.

A SÈVRES BISCUIT PORCELAIN BUST OF DIDEROT
1874-1880
Hard-paste biscuit porcelain modeled into a bust of Denis Diderot, atop a dark blue and gilt band socle.
With an incised late-19th century Sèvres cartouche mark on the bust and the incised script A * 7 * 79 *. Underneath the socle is the 'Doré à Sèvres 80' stamp in red next to a stamped S.79 inside a cartouche in green.

13 in. (33 cm) in height, 6 1/2 in. (16.5 cm) in width, 5 in. (12.7 cm) in depth.
Doyle, New York, Sale 09BE1, Belle Epoque, 11 February 2009, lot 1292.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

A few very small pieces from a toy tea set made at the La Seynie factory in Limoges around 1910. Bought these recently because I like seeing still life decoration on porcelain even if they're 'modern'. Not sure if they're hand-painted or chromolithographed, but they still have some charm.

La Seynie tea cup and saucer with decoration of a ewer and fruit. 1910.

Heavily-gilt saucer. Very 19th/20th century style.

Sugar bowl, probably. Another still life, but with lemons... and corn? Odd combo, but the black ewer is there.

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Reposted by Richard White

neil guthrie @nguthrie.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

London! First stop, the ceramics galleries at the V&A #c18 #c18th #18thc

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I couldn’t get real flowers going in this porcelain vase last spring so I bought modern porcelain ones instead. Unsure about the arrangement but I’ll work on it. They may not look it but they are extremely heavy!

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Reposted by Richard White

neil guthrie @nguthrie.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Small tureen or broth bowl with cover (Bow, c1755) #c18 #c18th #18thc

White porcelain with raised decoration in the form of flowering prunus branches (derived from Chinese originals and widely imitated by English and European factories e.g. Bow as here, Chelsea, Chantilly, Saint-Cloud, Meissen)

Detail of lid showing flowering branches and handle in the form of a twig

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I was in Boston that day, too, having crossed the finish line earlier and still hanging out on Boylston. Well, we’re still here and perhaps stronger because of it.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

New York City, later that September of 2001.

Ten days later and still smoke and dust are present.

Duane Street. Amazingly, the 55 members of Engine Company 7 and Ladder Company 1 all survived the initial collapse of the World Trade Center. Still, here is a well-deserved tribute outside the fire station.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

A circa 1770 Worcester porcelain mug with a 'blue scale' ground and flowers in scrolling reserves. Probably a factory second sold off to an outside decorator who was partial to Japanese floral design. Which is why I like it. (see ALT for more)

A FIRST PERIOD WORCESTER 'RED LINE BORDERED' MUG
CIRCA 1770
A porcelain mug with handle manufactured during the second quarter of the 18th century at Worcester, decorated with a 'blue scale' ground and scrolling rococo reserves containing Kakiemon-style decoration of geraniums in iron-red and leaves in green with blue highlights.
With an underglaze blue Worcester pseudo-fret mark underneath.
3 7/8 in. (9.8 cm) in diameter with handle and 3 3/8 in. (9 cm) in height.

In The Dictionary of Worcester Porcelain, Volume I, page 275, John Sandon describes the 'Red Line Bordered Group':
A large group of blue ground Worcester wares from c.1763-1775 are decorated in an uncharacteristic style which seems to relate to an independent decorator who bought faulty seconds from the factory and added copies of Kakiemon and other patterns. The most distinctive feature of this class is the absence of gilding and the use of narrow red lines in place of gold around the rims and edging panels.
The Kakiemon palette used by the decorator is limited to a slightly muddy red, strong egg-yolk yellow, black and green, with slightly more colours used when copying the factory's own formal flower painting.
...Sandon notes that Worcester stock with faulty blue ground and possibly with other defects had been given or sold to a local decorator sometime during 1772-1775 when the factory was sold off after Dr. Wall retired. As for this mug the upper rim has bowed slightly into an oval and is flattened relative to as base and may have been part of the sale of 'faulty seconds' to the local decorator.
For more on 'Red Line Bordered' wares, see Simon Spero & John Sandon, Worcester Porcelain: The Zorensky Collection, 2007, page 254.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Two more photos I took in New York City in late September, 2001. Union Square, Washington Square Park. People trying to come together after 9/11 to share their grief and support for the workers not far away at Ground Zero.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

When I switched out the banner photo above just now I was reminded how much I like this crazy border/rim on this 1768 Sèvres porcelain tray. And the two handles that look like wooden slats with nails, all painted in blue with gilt highlights. (see ALT)

I purchased this at Christie's New York five years ago.
This tray form first appears in the Sèvres archives in 1763, and may have been introduced in 1762, often as part of a déjeuner tea set. Several examples exist in bleu céleste and other color grounds, all with central decoration within gilt reserves, including two bleu céleste examples similar to this one in the Wallace Collection.

A SÈVRES BLEU CÉLESTE TWO-HANDLED TRAY (PLATEAU LOSANGE À JOURS À ANSES) CIRCA 1768
A porcelain molded tray decorated with gilt oak leaves on a bleu céleste ground and a rural landscaped scene within a burnished gilt oval reserve, the reticulated sides and handles painted and gilt with acanthus leaves and blue ground nailed in imitation of cross beams.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Very late mid-life crisis for me: training for my 60th marathon (NYC, November 1st) without an injury and to see if I can cross yet another %&^@ finish line. And not having murderous thoughts when a some well-meaning but annoying spectator screams 'you're almost there' at Mile 13.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

So have you received it? Has it been 'placed'? It is indeed a lovely piece.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The 9/11 commemorations and observances are now picking up in NYC, understandably. I remember the smoke and the stillness and the shared grief for weeks. Most of lower Manhattan was closed. At the time this was about as close as I could get to Ground Zero, photos I took in mid-September of 2001.

Barricades were placed along 14th Street, only residents were allowed to enter parts of the area.

A ConEd truck here and there, groups of policeman, etc., very quiet for weeks.

The spire of St. Paul's, smoke slightly obscuring a building on the other side of Ground Zero.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

A Saint-Cloud porcelain tea set, circa 1745. Applied prunus decoration copying imported Dehua Chinese porcelain of the time. Silver mounts with a trace of gilding, with marks on one piece dating it to 1744-50. Thickly-potted but light enough to use.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Being a New Yorker, after spending a day watching a couple of singles matches at the U.S. Open I was almost too appalled by the take-out food prices to notice the remarkable athleticism on the court. But I got over it.

Yes, that’s $100 for six chicken nuggets and just enough caviar in which to dip a couple of nuggets.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

A Vincennes porcelain 'vase à dauphin', circa 1754. In two sections and a bleu céleste ground decorated with, well, just about everything. I do love the two dolphin handles. Despite the fact it had been broken and re-stuck it sold at Christie's in 2012 for £49,250 (not to me). (see ALT)

From the Christie's auction catalogue lot listing:
A VINCENNES BLEU CELESTE GROUND FLOWER-VASE AND
STAND (VASE A DAUPHIN)
1754-55, BLUE INTERLACED L'S MARK ENCLOSING DATE LETTER B BETWEEN TWO DOTS
Price realised GBP 49,250 Estimate GBP 5,000 - GBP 7,000
The lower part with pierced apertures, the bombé-shaped base applied with two stylised dolphin terminals enriched in gilt scale-pattern, the shoulder with pierced trellis-pattern sections below a feuilles-de-choux rim, the flared flower vase moulded and gilt with a feuilles-de-choux border, the interior rim with gilt scrolls enclosing diaper-pattern, reserved with two oval panels, one painted with putti holding a floral garland, the other with a scroll manuscript within a wooded vignette, in tooled gilt oval cartouches of flowers and swags, flanked by two gilt moths, the base with vignettes of musical instruments and agricultural devices in garden landscapes, within similar tooled gilt oval floral cartouches, within gilt line rims (vase cracked across and restuck, in-filling to cracks, three restored rim chips and further rim chipping, hairline crack to rim of base, one dolphin's tail chipped and cracked and restuck, one tooth chipped, some flaking to gilt rims)
73⁄4 in. (19.2 cm.) high.
This elaborate Vase à Dauphin was probably designed by Jean-Claude Dupleissis père and makes use of the popular rococo motif, the dolphin. The dolphin was associated with the dauphin of France and was incorporated into decorative schemes of the period, possibly following the birth of the duc de Berri, the future Louis XVI in 1754.
Only six examples of this form are recorded: an example of circa 1755-56 painted by Dodin with putti.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Dominique Joffroy was a decorator at the Sèvres porcelain factory from 1754 to 1770. Not much is known about him but we do know he was a flower painter who decorated tea sets, 'useful' wares and vases. And one of the fine ribbon-tied floral swags on this vase from 1767.

Cuvette à Courteilles, 1767.
Due to lack of documentation, little is known about Dominique Joffroy other than that he was first employed at Vincennes in 1754 and then Sèvres when the factory was moved there two years later. He spent his 16-year career painting bouquets, sprays and swags of flowers on table items, tea sets, useful wares and vases.

Detail of the front of the vase, swag with ribbons.
Joffroy’s style of flower painting diverged slightly from the standard repertoire and that of his coworkers. One obvious attribute is his tendency to ‘fill in’ the space within reserves a bit more than his contemporaries did. His bouquets tended to encroach or touch the reserve borders even though gilded reserve borders were applied later; still, his flowers tend to dominate the space with a bit less of the ‘white ground’ than usual. Also, Joffroy employed many different types of flowers, large and small in his arrangements. Other painters did as well, but not usually on the same stems and stalks. Joffroy may have wanted to use as many different species as he could within the limited space he was given.
By painting a variety of colorful flowers Joffroy moved slightly away from the factory’s standard pink rose motif and created arrangements that boldly filled his porcelain canvas, so to speak. Though his career was shorter and his work not as prolific as some of his better-known coworkers, he still brought vitality and creativity to his work on porcelain through versatility and sheer size.

Joffroy's Mark: Scrolling 'P', which may be conjoined letters J and o or J and D

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

This week in '74 I attended the Asian Games in Tehran. Things have changed there a little bit since then.

September 1974, outside the stadium in Tehran. A photo from my adolescence that is for once not entirely embarrassing.

Pre-Imax jumbo screen days. A reminder of who was in charge at the time.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

The flower painter Cyprien-Julien Hirel de Choisy worked at the Sèvres porcelain factory from 1770 to about 1812. Born in Rennes in 1748 he trained at local faience factories. This is a covered broth bowl and stand he decorated and marked with his heraldic 'ermine' painter's mark. (see ALT for more)

Écuelle ‘ronde tournée’ and stand, 1775.
CYPRIEN-JULIEN HIREL DE CHOISY
RENNES 18 DECEMBER 1748 - SÉVRES 30 MARCH 1825
ACTIVE MAY 1770 - ca. 1812
Unlike many other workers at Sèvres we know some detail about the origins of Cyprien-Julien Hirel de Choisy. He was born to Julien-François Hirel, sieur de Choisy, in 1748. As a teenager Cyprien worked as a painter at two faience factories in his hometown of Rennes, one of which was the Manufacture du Pavé Saint-Laurent. While there he signed several of his pieces clearly enough: CHOISY, H.C., and simply C. One écritoire with three drawers (pictured below, now in the Musée de Bretagne) is signed and dated on the underside: Hirel de Choisy pencit 1767. Note that rather than merely providing floral decoration Choisy also chose to paint ‘diaper’ patterns in reserves in the center, not unlike designs already appearing on Meissen and Sèvres pieces.
At the age of 21 Choisy began his career at Sèvres and like many early painters before him after training as a ceramics painter elsewhere. By 1770 Sèvres had become the premier porcelain manufactory in France and Europe and Choisy was then entering a workshop with well-established painters and teachers. The factory had long ago moved past simple copies of Meissen and was now creating new designs and using new grounds not seen elsewhere along with ongoing orders for large services that required consistently high-quality floral decoration.

flower decoration detail from the underplate.
Like several of his fellow painters, Choisy provided floral decoration for several commissions, including the Catherine II service (1778-9), the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria service (1785), and a frise riche-patterned service delivered to the Comtesse d’Artois in 1789. As Sèvres created new and increasingly neoclassical forms, Choisy’s painter’s mark appeared on several cup-and-saucer combinations such as the two-handled gobelet étrusque et soucoupe. A fine example is in the Wadsworth Atheneum, while several more have appeared at auction over the last ten years.
Choisy’s long career continued into the Revolution and through to the end of the Empire period; an example of his later work appears on a continual pink rose border along the edges of a bleu lapis grand-tasse cup and saucer from 1811 (sold at Christie’s, Paris, in 2008), pictured on the right. He retired within the year and died at Sèvres in 1825.

MARK
Heraldic ‘ermine’ mark, usually placed beneath the double Ls. Perhaps inspired by its use on the Rennes and Brittany coat of arms or as the hermine symbol of Brittany, Hirel de Choisy’s birthplace.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

And if I must, two more of the nineteen Sèvres 'elephant' vases that we know of, also in the Met. Missing the candle holders/bobeches and in a different design in pink. Not my favorite decoration but crazy enough with those remarkable elephant heads.

Vase (vase à tête d'éléphant)
Modeler Jean-Claude Duplessis French
Manufactory Sèvres Manufactory French
ca. 1758
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 529
Many of the more extraordinary and unusual vase models made at Sèvres were created in the late 1750s, and of these the two types of vases seen here are among the most novel and ambitious. Such extravagant shapes were not admired by everyone, however. Thomas Bentley, the partner of pottery maker Josiah Wedgwood, wrote in 1776, “I observed several very rich vases of the manufacture of Seve, of the worst and clumsiest forms imaginable.” The majority of these new vase models found favor at the French court, however, and contemporary documents indicate that the elephant-head vases in particular were avidly purchased by the king, members of his circle, and prominent marchands-merciers.
An inventory of 1779 indicates that the potpourri vase in the form of a ship (see 58.75.89a, b) and the two elephanthead vases (see also 58.75.91a, b) were part of a decorative grouping of vases that was purchased by Louis-Joseph de Bourbon, prince de Condé (1736–1818), in December 1758. The two other vases that completed the garniture are now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. The prince de Condé kept the group in his Parisian residence, the Palais de Bourbon. The garniture of five vases cost the prince the impressive sum of 4,320 livres, an amount that exceeded the annual income of a typical professional worker in the eighteenth century.
Madame de Pompadour was an avid buyer of both models of vase, owning at least two of the boatshaped vases and possessing at least three pairs of elephant-head vases. The cost of these vases and the difficulty of producing them ensured that relatively few were made. Ten of the boat-shaped vases and twenty-two elephant-head vases are believed to have survived to the present day.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Perhaps you've encountered this vase form in museums, six are here in New York at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's the vase à tête d'éléphant, made at Sèvres circa 1760. It holds two candles, not just flowers. I think it's crazy and arguably ridiculous, but I'd take one if you gave it to me.

From the Met's website:
Elephant-head vase (vase à tête d'éléphant)
Manufactory Sèvres Manufactory French Modeler Jean-Claude Duplessis French 1758–62
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 529
This remarkable Sèvres porcelain elephant-head vase is one of six in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, four of which were given by Charles and Jayne Wrightsman (see 1983.185.9 and 1983.185.10, .11). Presumably due to the technical challenges and cost of making these vases, relatively few were produced at Sèvres, all of which date to the years around 1760; nineteen examples are known in public collections today.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Since I am not knowledgeable at all about identifying 'period' glass, what clues do you have that these are 'later' and not from the 18th century? I'm sure you would know right away!

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

François-Marie Barrat ('oncle') was hired at the Sèvres porcelain factory in August 1769 and worked there until 1791. He returned in 1795 and died there in 1796. He was a fine painter of flowers, especially swags of flowers as you can see on this vase from 1774.

Vase à fleurs à côtes, 1774.
FRANÇOIS-MARIE BARRAT oncle - FLOWER PAINTER
ca. 1750 - 12 JUNE 1796
ACTIVE 2 AUGUST 1769 - 25 NOVEMBER 1791; JANUARY 1795 - 1796
François-Marie Barrat’s long career as a decorator at Sèvres began in 1769 by painting roses and ‘bouquets détachés’ on table and service wares. Over the next ten years he expanded his repertoire into floral garlands, landscapes, baskets and vases with flower arrangements. By the 1780s his painted subjects included birds and decorative borders while being employed as a gilder and burnisher. His work appears on both soft-paste and hard-paste porcelain and on several services such as the Catherine II Service and the ‘service arabesque’. Barrat was referred to as oncle so as not to be confused with his nephew Barrat 'nevue', a flower painter active 1788-91.

Side view of the vase.
Barrat’s style of flower painting fits firmly within the standards of representation and uniformity that the Sèvres factory demanded for service, tea, and table wares. However, Barrat could also sometimes be a bit more creative and was able in larger decoration to make his floral designs differentiate themselves from those of other painters. Some observations:
- his Sèvres pink rose has outlined petals, a dark circular center, and appears somewhat less frequently in bouquets than in those by other painters;
- he, like several of the other painters in the workshop, prefers a swirling composition of flowers with a dense center;
- his arrangements contain a multitude of different kinds of flowers with a variety of colors, even when appearing on the same stem;
his painting often assumes a light source arriving from the upper left with shadows appearing on the upper left on petals and leaves;
arabesques and garlands that appear to ‘float’ mid-air instead of hang.
an overall dedication to outlining subjects, such as vases and flowers.
He was also able to paint birds (sometimes a bit less successfully than the flowers), and borders, but his most successful work appeared as bouquets in reserves or in swags and in painted scenes of flower vases.

His mark: Upper case F and B, sometimes with a period after each letter (though not on this vase).

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Jean-Jacques Pierre le jeune decorated Sèvres porcelain from 1763 until about 1800. He specialized in painting flowers on service wares and an occasional vase. This is a 1795 drawing of him in profile now in the Sèvres archives. (see ALT for more).

JEAN-JACQUES PIERRE le jeune
FLOWER AND PATTERN PAINTER, GILDER, BURNISHER
ca. 1745 - ca. 1800
ACTIVE 15 APRIL 1763 - ca. 1800
For a longer biographical sketch see: Rosalind Savill/The Wallace Collection, Vol. III, page 1059-60, key observations and text compiled below:
‘He painted almost exclusively on tea wares, service wares and écuelles. Exceptions include a garniture of vases… and a number of plaques… His work on service wares included contributions to the Catherine II service (1778-9) and the hard-paste service ‘des Asturies’.
‘He was often employed on border patterns of roses, pansies, daisies,
cornflowers, jasmin, ribbons, pearl borders and foliage in different combinations. He also painted flower sprays, bouquets and garlands, the lsat sometimes in monochrome, and less commonly, flowers on tables, in baskets, in vases or in landscapes (‘sur terrasse’).
‘Born in 1745/6. In October to December 1777 and from 5 June 1783 until 31 March 1784 he went on to piecework. In 1771 he is recorded living in the parish of Saint-Cloud. In 1777 he married Anne-Victoire Armand, daughter of a painter at the factory and herself active from 1777.’
His mark appears on several pieces with specialist designs including frizes riches, pointillé grounds and point d’espagne.
Pierre le jeune was the brother of another gilder and flower painter, Jacques Pierre l’aîné, active from 1759-76. His painter’s mark is similar: Pe or P.

Seau Ovale à Liqueur, 1767. It held two small wine bottles.

Mark: Upper case P and an apostrophe or ‘7’-like mark on the right, appearing below the double Ls, above. By the way, the gilt 'HP' is for the gilder Henri Prevost.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Geneviève-Louise Bouillat worked as a flower and landscape painter at Sèvres from 1776 to 1798. Her husband was also a porcelain painter there, they share the same 'Y' painter's mark. This is a cup and saucer she decorated, a lovely scene; the cup depicts a resting dog in a garden.

Coffee cup and saucer (gobelet litron), 1786
GENEVIÈVE-LOUISE BOUILLAT
BORN VINCENNES 14 FEBRUARY 1738 - died after 1798
ACTIVE 1776 - 1798
MARK: Scrolling y, usually to the left of the interlaced L’s.
Geneviève-Louise Bouillat was born to become a painter and decorator at Sèvres for she may have been born at the Vincennes factory. Her father, Louis-Jean Thévenet, was among the first painters hired there, while her mother Françoise-Elisabeth Thévenet was a painter of molded flowers, the factory’s top-selling item at the time. Both of her parents were employees for three decades, and later even her brother Jean-Baptiste became a flower painter beginning in 1752.
After the family moved with the factory from Vincennes to Sèvres, Geneviève met a new hire in the workshop, Edme-François Bouillat, and married him when she turned 20 in 1768. Though Bouillat had a longer and more successful career, Geneviève spent even more years surrounded by a family of dedicated flower painters and decorators. She and Edme-François had at least two children: François Bouillat fils, a flower, landscape and bird painter at Sèvres, active from 1785-93, and a daughter, Mlle. Rachel Bouillat, also a painter of flowers during three periods: 1783-92, 1796-98 (after becoming Mme. Maqueret, née Bouillat) and later in 1816-20.
Since her father, mother and husband were two of the best decorators at Vincennes/Sèvres Geneviève could achieve her potential with the instruction of some of the best teachers available. Based on her dates of employment against those of her children she may have waited to join the painters’ workshop after they reached their teenage years only to became employees on their own.

Detail of the saucer.
Geneviève mostly painted simple flower decoration, but her work may sometimes be confused with the very similar work by her husband, especially since they both used variants of the Y/y mark in the same location relative to the factory mark. She dabbled in painting landscapes after her husband, and may have tried other decoration as well. She disappears from the factory employment rolls in 1798 after a 22-year-long career in a second generation of three.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Claude-Antoine Tardy worked at the Sèvres porcelain factory between 1757 to 1795. He was a flower painter and gilder, working mostly on everyday objects and service wares. His painter's mark was a Masonic cypher. Here are some pieces from my collection that he decorated between 1773 and 1786.

Seau à Glace, ice pail, 1786.
The career and work of Tardy (sometimes listed as Tardi) is not catalogued in Rosalind Savill’s The Wallace Collection, Volume III, and so we lack the valuable research she brings to the lives of so many other painters at Vincennes/Sèvres. The dates of his life and early work are taken from Sèvres’ ‘MS Vj’2’ list of painters from 1773 and from 19th century recompilations and research using factory records.
His origins and training are so far unknown, however, we may conclude that Tardy worked primarily on useful wares for the table and toilette over his long career as a flower painter. His mark does not appear on larger more elaborate and expensive decorative pieces such as large vases or pieces intended as garniture.
The use of the Masonic or Rosicrucian symbol for ‘j’ or ’n’as a painter’s mark is unexplained from the lack of biographical information. An order of freemasons existed in France at the time that included members such as the Duc d’Orléans and the Marquis de Lafayette, but the society excluded factory workers among many others, so it appears unlikely Tardy was a member of the order.

Pot à l’Eau Tourné, ewer with cover, 1773.
Since Tardy painted on smaller to moderately-sized useful wares his arrangements are not quite as grand as those by other flower painters who specialized in, for instance, furniture plaques and large vases. His canvas was often a bit smaller, so to speak, so his smaller arrangements were painted by necessity. He, like all the flower painters, became a master of the standard pink rose spray. However, several attributes of his personal style appear on much of his work:
- a pink rose with multi-layered petals that is almost cabbage-like in detail;
- an effort to add detail to the flowers to imitate three-dimensional depth, similar to shading seen in drawings or etchings (and of course, prints were used by the painters to copy or for inspiration);
- a densely-packed bouquet often with two equally large flowers facing away from each other;
- elliptical green leaves with clearly defined veins and darkened halves or sections that imitate shadows;
- a sprig of small purple flowers with three-lobed leaves protruding away.

Plat à Raves (Root Vegetable Dish), 1780.
Several of his flowers have the feel of an engraving or etching, sometimes with a bit more petal detail and shading than might appear on some of those painted by his coworkers. Some of these perhaps finely-wrought details would appear later on some of the factory’s hard-paste work, but all of the examples pictured here were painted on soft-paste and shows a possible influence of using supplied prints as inspiration.

His mark is pictured here at the bottom, a single dot centered within a box: either the Masonic symbol for the lower case letter J or the Rosicrucian cipher for the letter N.

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