Sèvres Biscuit Porcelain Clock
View Similar Items
Sèvres Biscuit Porcelain Clock
About the Item
- Creator:Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres (Maker)
- Dimensions:Height: 17 in (43.18 cm)Width: 14.5 in (36.83 cm)Depth: 7 in (17.78 cm)
- Style:Louis XVI (In the Style Of)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:circa 1850
- Condition:
- Seller Location:Vancouver, CA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU105363963383
Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres
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.
- Sèvres Porcelain Louis XVI Lyre Mantel Clock by Kinable, Dial by DubuissonBy Dubuisson, Dieudonné KinableLocated in Paris, FRDieudonné Kinable Enamel Dial Attributed to Dubuisson (1731-1815) Exceptional Porcelain Lyre Mantel Clock from the Royal Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory Paris, late Louis XVI period, circa 1785-1790 Height 62 cm; width 26 cm; depth 16 cm The round enamel dial, signed “Kinable”, indicates the hours in Roman numerals, the fifteen-minute intervals in Arabic numerals, the annual calendar and the signs of the Zodiac, by means of four hands, two of which are made of pierced gilt bronze, the two others in blued steel. The magnificent lyre-shaped case is made of “bleu nouveau” Sèvres porcelain and finely chased and gilt bronze. The bezel is made up of a gilt bronze twisted rope; the pendulum is adorned with brilliant-cut paste stones; the body of the lyre is adorned with gilt bronze beading and with laurel leaf and seed motifs, with two rosettes issuing floral and foliate swags. The clock is surmounted by a mask with radiating sunrays. The spreading foot is decorated with beading and twisted rope motifs and a leafy garland. The en-suite decorated oval base is raised upon four flattened ball feet. The Royal Sèvres Porcelain Factory produced the lyre clock model as of 1785. Four colours were offered: turquoise, green, pink and bleu nouveau. These exceptional clocks were made for the connoisseurs of the time. Louis XVI had a similar clock in his Salon des jeux in Versailles; its dial bore the signature of the clockmaker Courieult (this is almost certainly the example illustrated in P. Verlet, Les bronzes dorés français du XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1999, p. 41). Kinable, however, was the clockmaker who purchased the greatest number of lyre cases from the factory, and he developed the model in the late 18th century. Among the porcelain lyre clocks signed by this brilliant horologer, one example is in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London (illustrated in H. Ottomeyer and P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Band I, Munich, 1986, p. 252, fig. 4.6.26). A second such clock is in the Royal British Collection (see C. Jagger, Royal Clocks, The British Monarchy & its Timekeepers 1300-1900, 1983, p. 130, fig. 176). Bibliography: M. Gay and A. Lemaire, “Les pendules lyre”, in Bulletin de l’Association nationale des Collectionneurs et Amateurs d’Horlogerie ancienne, Winter 1993, n° 68, p. 5-40. Dieudonné Kinable (active circa 1785-1810) One of the most important Parisian clockmakers of the late 18th century. His shop was located at n° 131 Palais Royal. He purchased a great number of lyre-type porcelain clock cases...Category
Antique 1780s French Louis XVI Mantel Clocks
MaterialsBronze
Price Upon RequestFree Shipping - Sèvres Porcelain 'Jeweled' Three-Piece Clock Set by Raingo FrèresBy Raingo FrèresLocated in New York, NYA wonderful and important mid-19th century gilt bronze and turquoise sevres porcelain 'Jeweled' three-piece clock set. By Raingo Frères....Category
Antique Mid-19th Century French Belle Époque Clocks
MaterialsBronze
- Late 19th Century Gilt Bronze Mounted Parcel-Gilt and Biscuit Porcelain ClockLocated in New York, NYA beautifully design late 19th century gilt bronze mounted parcel-gilt and biscuit porcelain mantel (fireplace) clock The front carved with Apollo riding his chariot. The bottom w...Category
Antique Late 19th Century French Belle Époque Mantel Clocks
MaterialsBronze
- Rococo Style Gilt Bronze and Sèvres Style Porcelain Clock GarnitureBy Manufacture Nationale de SèvresLocated in London, GBThis large and impressive clock garniture set consists of a central clock and a pair of flanking vases. The three pieces are extremely finely decorated with painted cartouches of fly...Category
Antique Late 19th Century French Rococo Mantel Clocks
MaterialsOrmolu
- Late 19th Century Gilt Bronze and Turquoise Sèvres Porcelain 'Jeweled' Clock SetBy Manufacture Nationale de SèvresLocated in New York, NYLate 19th century gilt bronze and turquoise Sèvres porcelain 'Jeweled' three-piece clock set The clock surmounted by a covered urn, the c...Category
Antique Late 19th Century French Belle Époque Mantel Clocks
MaterialsBronze
$24,000 Sale Price / set20% Off - Late 19th Century Gilt Bronze Mounted Three Piece Sèvres Style Clock SetLocated in New York, NYLate 19th Century Gilt Bronze Mounted Three Piece Cobalt Blue Sèvres Style Clock Set Comprising: a round clock with a final with two birds; a pair of five-light candleabra with s...Category
Antique 19th Century French Clocks
MaterialsBronze