A maker of exemplary European ceramics for hundreds of years, Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres has produced porcelain of the highest quality since 1740.
The factory enjoyed royal patronage from its earliest days, and its most prominent patrons in the late 1700s — King Louis XV of France and his mistress, Madame de Pompadour — commissioned some of the period’s most elegant and striking pieces (only the truly wealthy could afford porcelain at this time). The company was originally established in Vincennes but was moved at the request of Madame de Pompadour, in 1756, to Sèvres, near Versailles, so that its operations would be closer to her château.
Sèvres became a mighty and much-revered factory working under a special grant from King Louis XV — the company’s owner as of 1759 and whose abundance of orders for special state gifts put financial strain on the company. Madame de Pompadour is said to have commissioned Sèvres to create an entire indoor garden of porcelain botanicals, for example.
While Sèvres gained a sterling reputation for its soft-paste porcelain wares, the company was late in entering into the production of hard-paste porcelain.
Hard-paste porcelain is the most common type of Chinese porcelain, then a widely exported and profitable product that was not made in Europe until the 18th century. The resources at Sèvres were largely relegated to meeting the demands of Louis XV, and secondly, it did not acquire the secret formula for hard-paste porcelain until 1761.
Until it obtained the coveted secrets behind hard-paste porcelain from a chemist named Pierre-Antoine Hannong — and, years later, gained access to the elusive raw materials to make hard-paste porcelain — Sèvres produced soft-paste porcelain for decades that was widely celebrated but is comparatively a far weaker type as opposed to the hard-paste productions of the company’s rival, Meissen, in Saxony, the first to produce true porcelain outside of Asia.
The artisans at Sèvres applied the rarest and most difficult-to-produce colors to their decorative objects and dinner services. One such color, the bright bleu de roi, became the manufacturer’s signature shade and is found on many of their objects. Sèvres also experimented with rarely glazed or unglazed works that bore no decoration at all — bisque porcelain, French for “biscuit,” refers to unadorned white porcelain sculptures made at Sèvres that resemble white marble after being kiln-fired.
Sèvres marks were applied over the glaze or rendered with cuts by a sharp tool — authentic Sèvres porcelain is most commonly marked with two interlaced Ls that are painted in blue and enclose a third letter. Painters and potters were tasked with affixing marks to record their role in the creation of a particular piece, and as a lot of these artisans’ names are recorded in archival factory materials — and there is also much to be learned at the Sèvres museum — it’s likely that you can accurately identify your Sèvres piece.
Find antique and vintage Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres vases, urns, sculptures and more on 1stDibs.
| Average Sold Price |
| $4,393 |
| Styles |
| Materials |
| Related Creators |
1924 Olympic Games Vase by Octave Guillonnet, Sèvres Porcelain, France
By Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres, Octave Guillonnet
Located in Saint-Amans-des-Cots, FR
1924 Paris Olympic Games Gold Medal Vase. Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres Designed by Octave Denis Victor Guillonnet, executed by Émile Louis Bracquemond Exceptional and extremely ...
Ceramic, Porcelain
$3,800Sale Price / set|40% Off
H 10.63 in Dm 12.6 in
19th Century Sèvres Porcelain Dinner Set with Comital Coronet
By Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres
Located in LA CIOTAT, FR
This exquisite 52-piece porcelain dinner service, crafted by Sèvres in the 19th century, exemplifies the refined artistry and heritage of French porcelain. Each piece features a hand-painted burgundy rim with gilded accents, along with a monogram “B” crowned with a comital coronet—a mark of aristocratic prestige. The crown, characterized by nine pearls...
Porcelain
$2,300
H 8.75 in Dm 7.5 in
1930s Art Déco Greenish Crystalline Glaze Sèvres Porcelain Bulbous Vase, France
By Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres
Located in North Miami, FL
1930s Art Déco Greenish Crystalline Glaze Sèvres Porcelain Bulbous Vase, France By: Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres Material: porcelain, ceramic Technique: cast, pressed, hand-craft...
Ceramic, Porcelain
$12,500
H 22 in W 9 in D 7 in
Antique French Ormolu & Sevres Porcelain 3 Piece Clock Candelabra Garniture 1870
By Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres, Brocot & Delettrez, F. Barbedienne Foundry
Located in Portland, OR
An outstanding quality antique gilded bronze & Sevres porcelain French 3 piece, 8 day clock garniture with candelabra, by Brocot & Delettrez, Paris, circa 1870. The clock with an 'egg' shaped urn made of cobalt blue Sevres porcelain with a hand-painted panel with a neo-classical beauty and a cupid, the rear is painted with gilt birds & floral decoration. The urn with gilt bronze handles to the sides held in the mouths of lion's masks, the clock below also with sumptuously decorated with gilded cobalt porcelain panels, the clock dial with black Roman numerals & is finely painted with two horses and a chariot with a putti falling out of the chariot. The clock has two winding arbors one for the 8 day time wind the other for a chime, the clock chimes the hours on a soft delicate sounding bell, the clock is in full working order and was recently professionally cleaned. The clock is complemented with a pair of gilt bronze & cobalt blue Sevres porcelain four branch vasiform candelabras, decorated with oval panels to the front with putti & Neoclassical maidens, the back panels finely painted with birds, each candelabra is in two sections and raised on gilt bronze bases with corbel brackets & acanthus leaf feet. The bronze casting is very likely by the Barbedienne Foundry in Paris, as the quality is outstanding, the clock is stamped "BD" for Achille Brocot (1817-1878) and Jean-Baptiste Delettrez (1816-1887), they were two of the most important French clock makers of the mid to late 19th century, please see some biography below. The clock is mechanically & cosmetically in excellent condition, and was recently overhauled by a clock-smith, the porcelain & ormolu are also in excellent condition, one of the very best investment quality gilt-bronze & Sevres porcelain clock garnitures by the top French makers of the period, circa 1870. This garniture will be professionally crated for shipping. Delettrez and Achille Brocot, son of the respected clockmaker Louis-Gabriel Brocot, established the clockmaking company "Brocot et Delettrez" in Paris on 20 October 1851, with premises at 62 Rue Charlot Paris. Jean-Baptiste Delettrez worked alongside Achille Brocot for several years and their clock movements are considered to be the most effective made during the late 19th century. Their specialty was a range of clocks based on the innovations of Brocot père and his other son Antoine, but generally of Achille's greatly advanced original design, some having a unique single-arm double-wheel escapement, some having a temperature-compensated pendulum, some having two dials, one of which showed the time and the other which showed a calendar and often other information such as phases of the moon, times of sunrise & sunset in Paris, etc. The firm was awarded a 1st class prize at the Paris World Exposition of 1857 for a commercial clock...
Ormolu
Large Heavy Sèvres Crystal Vase
By Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres
Located in LA CIOTAT, FR
A beautiful 20th century large Sèvres crystal vase, organically shaped with an asymmetric flared rim and flat base, ideal as a table centrepiece or...
Crystal
$5,712
H 16.15 in W 13.39 in D 5.12 in
19th Century Louis XVI Style Ormolu Bronze Clock with Sèvres Porcelain
By Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres
Located in Casteren, Noord-Brabant
A fine quality Louis XVI style bronze ormolu mantel clock. The case is made of gilt brass and bronze ormolu casted ornaments, Roman numerals in white enameled cartouches. On top of t...
Bronze, Ormolu
$1,196Sale Price|20% Off
H 10 in W 6 in D 5 in
19th Century Sevres Biscuit Group of Three Frolicking Puttos
By Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres
Located in West Palm Beach, FL
19th century Sevres biscuit group of three frolicking puttos France, Date Lettered 1884 A splendid example of 19th century Sevres biscuit porcelain...
Ceramic, Wood
$45,180Sale Price|40% Off
H 56 in W 18 in D 11 in
Palatial French Ormolu-Mounted Sevres Porcelain Hand-Painted Vase and Cover
By Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres
Located in Long Island City, NY, NY
A palatial french ormolu-mounted Sevres Porcelain hand-painted vase and cover, circa 1838. This monumental Sevres porcelain vase stands 56" high, and is beautifully hand-painted with classical scenes of lovers and cupids, in teal / turquoise blue ground porcelain. Made with very fine quality figural bronze handle, the vase turns to a full 360 degree angle and is mounted on a solid bronze base with fine detail. Painted with beautiful flowers throughout the entire vase, leading up to the cover, which is adorned with an acorn bronze...
Bronze
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| $4,393 |
Average sold price of items in the past 12 months |
| $250-$34,983 |
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