Ceramic Paintings

Barbizon landscape painting on porcelain. French. 19th century. Signed E. Millet. Porcelain measures 14.5" in diameter.

A very good quality early 19th Century Austrian, Vienna style convex porcelain plaque depicting a hand painted portrait of the "Duchess of Devonshire." Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess o...

A BERLIN (K.P.M.) PORCELAIN PLAQUE: BALTHAZAR'S FEAST Mid-19th century The reverse with impressed sceptre and KPM factory marks and various incised numbers, in a giltwood frame. Fr...

“Amor fit Schmetterling” Cupid with a Butterfly Artist: After William-Adolphe Bouguereau Period: Late 19th/Early 20th Century Dimension: 7 1/2 x 10 inches (plaque); 12 x 14 inches (...

This plaque depicts a quintessential 19th century Northern European woman with blonde hair, blue eyes and modest European fashions. She holds a bushel of fresh flowers as an offering and to decorate the small stone statue of Mary and a young Jesus before...

A delightful porcelain plaque of a middle eastern woman wearing a head scarf, gold medallion jewelry and an embroidered shirt with puffed sleeve...

A fine Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur plaque of a young nude woman beside a carved marble fire pit. She plays with a flock of white and grey pigeons as smoke from the fire billows a...

Finely painted after Rembrandt with a self-portrait of the artist and his spouse, Saskia, in a tavern, in the guise of the Prodigal Son LATE 19TH CENTURY, IMPRESSED MONOGRAM AND SCE...

A rare and exquisite Berlin painted round porcelain plaque of two young beauties, impressed K.P.M., sceptre mark; signed Wagner. Painter: Wagner Maker: K.P.M. Origin: German Date...

A largeKPM painted porcelain plaque depicting a Psyche holding a Lekythos. The lush and overgrown dark forrest envelops the background of composition, surrounding a bright female fig...

"Guardian Angel" late 19th c. Original hand-painted KPM Porcelain In Jewel Encrusted Frame approx. 6 3/8 x 5 inches

Important KPM Plaque of a Gladiator Battling a Lion and Tiger in a Colosseum. A woman in distress cowers behind the gladiator as he surmounts his recently slain lion, readying himsel...

Berlin Porcelain Mythological Plaque of 'The Judgment of Paris' KPM, Late 19th- Century After a painting by Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish 1577-1640); ve...

Impressed monogram and scepter mark and Cypher. Maker: K.P.M. Origin: Berlin Date: Late 19th century Dimension: 10 1/4 in x 7 3/4 in

French Porcelain Mythological Plaque of Venus and Cupid J. Pascault after 19th Century Romantic School, Early 20th Century The full-length portrait in a forest brook, depicting a win...

Antique and exceptionally rare and fine Portrait of 6 Dogs on Enameled Ceramic Maison Pichenot-Loebnitz France, ca. 1870. 25 x 8 (31 x 13 framed) inches This rectangular panel made of enameled ceramic was made by Jules Loebnitz in the second half of the 19th century depicts a suite of 6 very fine canines in a landscape setting. The Pichenot-Loebnitz factory was founded by Mr Pichenot, grandfather of Jules Loebnitz, in 1833. From 1841, Mr Pichenot created a new, innovative method of uncrackable earthenware panels for architectural mantels, winning a medal at the Exhibition of 1844. In 1857, Jules Loebnitz, an artist as much as an industrialist, became director of the factory. For his first major job, Loebnitz passionately collaborated with architect Félix Duban on the restoration of the Blois Castle, recreating the antique tiles of the mantelpieces. He then went to work with the most prominent architects of his times; Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, Laval, Charles Garnier, Just Lisch and Paul Sédille. A friendship was born in 1867 between Paul Sédille, the architect of the Printemps department stores and the Basilica of Bois-Chenu in Domrémy-la-Pucelle, and Jules Loebnitz that would lead to a tight, long-lasting professional, artistic, and intellectual collaboration. This was an important meeting between the theorist of polychrome architecture and the man who had pushed French ceramic art considerably forward, allowing for large, enameled earthenware plates decorated with very bright and long-lasting glass-like colors. Many architectural projects were born from the collaboration of Sédille and Loebnitz: World’s fair pavilions, apartment buildings, villas, hotels, and monuments. During the Great Exhibition of 1878, Paul Sédille created the door of the Palais des Beaux-arts, while Jules Loebnitz was in charge of the ceramic decoration of the facade. A reporter covering the 1878 World’s fair described the monumental door...

KPM Porcelain Historical Plaque of 'Jesus in the Temple' LATE 19 Century After a painting by Johann Michael Ferdinand Heinrich Hofmann (German 18...

KPM Porcelain Plaque of 'Duchess Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz' late 19 CENTURY Century After a painting by Gustav Richter (German 1823-1884); verso with an impressed scepter abo...

KPM Porcelain Mythological Plaque of ‘Psyche with a Butterfly on the Lake Shore' Late 19th CENTURY After a painting by Wilhelm Kray (German 1828-1889); v...

Berlin Porcelain Allegorical Plaque of Admiration KPM, Late 19th CENTURY The three-quarter-length portrait depicting a brunette woman with blue eyes in light ecclesiastical robes supporting palms crossed over chest and looking up over right shoulder - in a landscape immersed in powder blue sea holly...

Portrait of a lady with long hair, wearing a kimono Date: late 19th/early 20th century Origin: Berlin Signed C. Schmidt on L/L Dimension: 9 1/4 in x 6 1/2 in

A seated beauty with long, voluminous hair, a serene expression, and gently clasped hands. Origin: Germany Date: 19th century Signed: J. Bock L/L Dimension: 9 3/8 in x 6 1/2 in

A Fine KPM Plaque depicting a Beautiful Lady with a Hat holding a bouquet of flowers. Impressed KPM and sceptre mark to the reverse. Maker: KPM Origi...

Depicting a shoulder-length portrait of a long haired beauty with green drapery about her shoulders Origin: Germany Date: 19th century Signed: KPM in ver...

Semi nude female portrait of woman in profile, wearing sheer fabric over her breasts. Origin: Berlin Date: 19th Century Signature: signed WAGNER Dime...

Finely painted after Hébert with a raven-haired beauty seated before a harp, pearls in her hair and about her neck, a diaphanous scarlet shawl draped across her shoulder, the reverse inscribed "O Music!... Friend of Pleasure, Wisdom's aid!" Impressed monogram and scepter mark, A 6 and Cypher. Title: The Harp...

Finely painted after August Riedel (German, 1799-1883) with the biblical heroine, depicting holding a sword in one hand and the head of Holofernes at the...

Depicting young ladies having a tea party by the pond of a country estate, and a young nobleman courting a young lady feeding the swans. Incised "KPM", scepter, "255 / 195" and signe...

Cherub kissing a semi nude female dune in the clouds. KPM porcelain plaque of a female dune and a cherub. Date: circa 19th Century Origin: Germany Size: 7 1/2 in x 10 in

Finely painted after C.A. Lenoir with a pensive brunette beauty seated at the edge of a fountain well; signed in front right corner "F. Hohle," plaque impressed monogram and scepter ...

Finely painted porcelain plaque; a shipwrecked sailor kissing a nude siren in a stormy sea. Impressed monogram and sceptre mark and H, incised 90. Origin: Berlin Date: late 19th cen...

A porcelain plaque depicting a beautiful veiled woman holding a flower gesturing to keep a secret. Impressed KPM and scepter mark, signed "O. Dietriche", in a giltwood frame. Maker: ...

A Fine KPM Plaque of a beauty in an elegant blue dress. Impressed KPM and sceptre mark to the reverse. Maker: KPM Origin: German Date: 19th century

Signed KPM Porcelain Plaque of a Goddess and Cupid and gilded frame. Date: 19th century Origin: Berlin, Germany Signature: Signed Dimension: 10.25 in. x 7.75 in.

An exquisite K.P.M. finely painted plaque, depicting a bejeweled beauty, seated on a curule chair, with impressed monogram and scepter mark and cyphers. Origin: Berlin Date: 19th c...

Finely painted German rectangular plaque depicting two beautiful women talking in the courtyard. One female sitting beside a flower plant, the other female standing. Maker: K.P.M. O...

An exquisite Berlin painted rectangular porcelain plaque of a wistful young beauty, standing beside a fence in a landscape, in the manner of Baron Bodenhausen. Maker: K.P.M. Origin:...

KPM and inscribed n. C. Kiesel, titled Orientalin in red to the underside, with underglaze blue scepter mark and impressed letters and numbers. Origin: German Date: Late 19th Centur...

Signed rectangular hand painted portrait on porcelain, showing a woman with flowers, with KPM mark verso. Maker: K.P.M. Origin: Ger...

The rectangular plaque hand-painted depicting two children lost in a forest. Origin: German Date: 19th century Dimension: (Plaque) 13 in. x 8 in.; (framed) 19 1/2 in. x 14 1/2 in.

GERMAN PORCELAIN PLAQUE Austrian, (1840 - 1884) Cleopatra on the Nile Painted plaque 7 1/4 in. x 21 in.

KPM PORCELAIN PLAQUE German, 19th Century Beauty with Flowers Painted plaque 13 in. x 8 in.

KPM PORCELAIN PLAQUE German, 19th Century Beauty with Headband Signed Greiner Painted plaque 13 1/4 in. x 11 1/4 in.

Jacques Lienard (1779-1848) French Napoleon Ist Miniature on Porcelain Signed Porcelain: 5 1/2 high x 4 1/5 wide

KPM Porcelain After Angelo Asti (French, 1847-1903) "Épanouissement" c. 1900 With Original Gold Gilded Frame Image Size: approx. 6 x 4 inches Framed Size: approx. 9 x 6 inches Eve...

KPM Style German "Napoleon" c. late 19th c. Signed "Bock" Original Hand-Painted Porcelain Marked Verso approx 7 x 5 inches/approx 10 x 8 framed

KPM Porcelain "Queen Louise" c. late 19th century Original Hand-Painted Porcelain Signed "R. Dittrich" Since 250 years, the royal sceptre brand stands fo...

Marguerite Hand Painted Porcelain w/crown stamp #107 Signed "Wagner" Original Gilded Florentine Frame approx 6 x 4 inches /approx 14 x 8 inches framed Since 250 years, the royal sc...

Sevres 19th C. Original Hand Painted Porcelain Signed "G Poitevin" approx 9 x 5 inches/15 x 12 framed The vast and diverse production of the Sèvres factory in the nineteenth century resists easy characterization, and its history during this period reflects many of the changes affecting French society in the years between 1800 and 1900. Among the remarkable accomplishments of the factory was the ability to stay continuously in the forefront of European ceramic production despite the myriad changes in technology, taste, and patronage that occurred during this tumultuous century. The factory, which had been founded in the town of Vincennes in 1740 and then reestablished in larger quarters at Sèvres in 1756, became the preeminent porcelain manufacturer in Europe in the second half of the eighteenth century. Louis XV had been an early investor in the fledgling ceramic enterprise and became its sole owner in 1759. However, due to the upheavals of the French Revolution, its financial position at the beginning of the nineteenth century was extremely precarious. No longer a royal enterprise, the factory also had lost much of its clientele, and its funding reflected the ruinous state of the French economy. However, the appointment in 1800 of Alexandre Brongniart (1770–1847) as the administrator of the factory marked a profound shift in its fortunes. Trained as both an engineer and a scientist, Brongniart was both brilliant and immensely capable, and he brought all of his prodigious talents to the running of the troubled porcelain factory. He directed the Sèvres factory as administrator until his death in 1847, and during those five decades influenced every aspect of its organization and production. Much of the factory’s old, undecorated stock was immediately sold off, and new forms—largely in the fashionable, more severe Neoclassical style—were designed to replace out-of-date models. The composition for hard-paste porcelain was improved, and the production of soft paste, for which the factory had been famous in the previous century, was abandoned in 1804. New enamels colors were devised, and Brongniart oversaw the development of a new type of kiln that was both more efficient and cost-effective. Much of the factory’s output during Brongniart’s first decade reflected the prevailing Empire taste, which favored extensive gilding, rich border designs, and elaborate figural scenes (56.29.1–.8). Backgrounds simulating marble or a variety of hardstones were employed with greater frequency (1987.224); the new range of enamel colors developed under Brongniart made it easier to achieve these imitation surfaces, and it is thought that his interest in mineralogy provided the impetus for this type of decoration. For objects produced in sets, such as dinner, tea, and coffee services, and even garnitures of vases, Brongniart preferred decorative schemes that linked the objects in terms of subject matter as well as stylistically. Dinner services were given coherence by the use of an overall theme, in addition to shared border patterns and ground colors. One of the best examples of this can be found in the “Service des Départements,” which was conceived by Brongniart in 1824 (2002.57). Each of the plates in the service was decorated with a famous topographical view of the département (administrative unit) of France that it represented, and its border was painted with small cameo portraits of figures from the region, as well as symbols of the major arts, industries, and products of the area. This same type of thematic unity is found on a coffee service produced in 1836 (1986.281.1ab–4). All of the pieces of the service are decorated with scenes depicting the cultivation of cacao, from which chocolate is made, or various stages in the preparation of chocolate as a beverage. The compositions were conceived and executed by Jean Charles Develly, a painter at Sèvres who was responsible for many of the most ambitious dinner services produced at the factory during Brongniart’s tenure. The range of objects produced in the first half of the nineteenth century was enormous, as were the types of decoration that they employed. A recent exhibition catalogue devoted to Brongniart’s years at Sèvres indicates that ninety-two new designs for vases were introduced, as were eighty-nine different cup models, and the types of objects produced by the factory included every sort of form required by a dinner or dessert service, coffee and tea wares, decorative objects such as vases, and functional objects such as water jugs, basins, and toiletry articles. A new form rarely replaced an older one; the range of production simply increased. The same was true with types of decoration, as the factory was working in a wide variety of styles at any given time. From the earliest years of the Sèvres factory, its painters had copied not only contemporary compositions but also prints and paintings from earlier periods. However, under Brongniart, the factory sought to copy famous paintings with the specific intention of recording the “true” appearance of works increasingly perceived to be fragile. Works by a wide variety of artists were copied, but those by Raphael were especially popular. Raphael’s stature is reflected in a vase of 1834 in which a cameo-style portrait of the artist decorates the primary reserve, while on the back an artist’s palette is encircled by the names Titian, Poussin, and Rubens (1978.373). Just as works by earlier artists were copied, so too were decorative techniques of previous centuries. The interlace patterns of so-called Saint-Porchaire ceramic ware of the sixteenth century served as the inspiration for the decoration on a cup of 1837 (2003.153). The form of the cup itself derives from Renaissance silver forms made in Italy and France. However, the palette of vibrant reds, greens, blues, and yellows contrasts markedly with the muted browns and off whites of Saint-Porchaire wares and reflects the reinterpretation of historical styles that was characteristic of so much of nineteenth-century decorative arts. Interest in the Gothic style emerged early in Brongniart’s tenure at Sèvres and remained popular for much of the nineteenth century. Strict adherence to Gothic motifs was rarely observed, however, and the Gothic style was more evoked than faithfully copied. This tendency is reflected in a pair of vases (1992.23.1) for which the model was designated vase gothique Fragonard (named after the vase’s designer, Alexandre Evariste Fragonard [1780–1850]. The Gothic elements lie more in the painted decoration than in the form itself, and the style of the painting reflects a Renaissance technique rather than a medieval one. The palette of grays and whites on a blue ground instantly recalls the enamel-on-copper wares produced in Limoges, France, in the sixteenth century, and its use on these vases indicates the willingness to freely mix artistic styles and techniques of different periods in order to achieve new aesthetic effects. The eclecticism and historicism that characterized so much of the production during Brongniart’s tenure continued after his death in 1847. The factory’s output reflected an ongoing desire for technical innovation as well as a wide embrace of diverse decorative styles that were employed simultaneously. A tea and coffee service of 1855–61 (69.193.1–.11) embodies the selective borrowing of forms and motifs that is found so frequently in Sèvres production of the middle decades of the nineteenth century. The shapes used for the different components of the service evoke both China and the Near East, an obvious allusion to the origins of the two beverages. The openwork decoration refers directly to Chinese ceramics made in this technique, and the decoration employs a variety of Chinese emblems. However, the palette of pink and gold, entirely European in character, serves to neutralize the Asian aspects of the service. Perhaps the only thread that can be said to run through much Sèvres production of the nineteenth century is the proclivity to borrow freely from various historical styles and then to either reinterpret these styles or combine them in unprecedented ways. A standing cup of 1879 (1990.238a,b) draws upon silver cups of the Renaissance for its form, but in this instance the size of the porcelain cup dwarfs any of its metal prototypes. Its style of decoration derives from Limoges painted enamels of the sixteenth century, but the prominent use of gilding throughout reflects its wholly nineteenth-century character. This cup was presented by the French government to one of the first-prize winners at the 1878 Exposition Universelle. It was with the advent of the Art Nouveau style at the very end of the nineteenth century that historicism lost its grip at Sèvres, and indeed throughout the decorative arts, and forms inspired by nature and often characterized by asymmetry become dominant. This reliance upon natural forms is fully evident in a coffee service of 1900–1904 (1988.287.1a,b). The designer, Léon Kann...

KPM Porcelain "Ruth" c. 1900 Original hand-painted KPM Porcelain In Original Gilded Florentine Frame 7 x 4 (16 x 9 framed) Since 250 years, the royal sceptre brand stands for finest...

KPM Porcelain "Queen Louise" c. 1900 Original hand-painted KPM Porcelain approx. 14 x 11 inches approx. 21 x 15 inches framed Since 250 years, the royal ...