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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 17h

A matching pair of Chinese Export porcelain Kangxi-era plates decorated in the Kakiemon style, picturing the ‘Hob in the Well’ scene possibly painted by Dutch or English decorators, circa 1710. Painted and gilt with an underglaze blue diaper pattern and reserves. Spot the slight variations!

The ‘Hob in the Well’ pattern was first mentioned in a 1755 Chelsea Sale Catalogue and is based on a scene from the English stage farce The Country Rake; the original design on which this is based is taken from the Chinese story of Sima Guang and later the Japanese story of Shiba Onko. Several factories manufactured dishes and cups with saucers with slight variations of this pattern during the 18th century, including Meissen and Chelsea.

MARKS
No painter's marks.

MEASUREMENTS
Each 9” (22.8 cm) in diameter.

PROVENANCE
Bonhams, London, Sale 30705, Fine Glass and British Ceramics, 11 June 2025, lot 254.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 2d

Photos I took a while ago of one of my favorite places in Paris, the Musée Nissim de Camondo, closed for renovations and reopening in 2027. An amazing and later tragic story. Spectacular 18th century interiors with fine Sèvres and Chantilly porcelain dinner services, too. Go when it reopens!

The so-called Service Buffon, Sèvres, circa 1784. Decorated with birds, an understatement.

Chantilly dinner plates with scattered flower decoration.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 3d

A circa 1730-35 du Paquier tureen and stand decorated with Chinese-inspired scenes within fan-shape cartouches, now in the Frick Museum. You have to love those fish handles. (see ALT)

Tureen and Stand

Du Paquier Porcelain Manufactory (Austrian, 1718−1744)
DATE ca. 1730–35
MEDIUM Hard-paste porcelain
DIMENSIONS Tureen: 7 × 12 1/2 in. (17.8 × 31.8 cm) Stand: 16 5/8 × 10 3/8 in. (42.2 × 26.4 cm)
CREDIT LINE Gift from the Melinda and Paul Sullivan Collection, 2016
ACCESSION NUMBER 2016.9.07

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 4d

On this day in 1735 Louis XV signed letters patent allowing Ciquaire Cirou of Chantilly the right to make porcelain ‘in the Japanese style’ for the next 20 years. The factory had already been making porcelain, but it was nice to get a royal permit and endorsement. Here’s some of my Chantilly pieces.

Bowls, wine coolers, ewer and basin, tobacco container, dish and cup.

Japanese-style decoration on all of it. Circa 1730-45.

Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 4d

Happy Birthday to Sèvres porcelain painter Jean-Louis Morin, born on this day in 1732. He specialized in "marine scenes" such as the one he painted on this cup and saucer from 1777. 🎂

Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · Dec 20

A bleu céleste ground coffee cup (litron) and saucer manufactured at the Sèvres factory circa 1777, both decorated with quayside scenes within gilt line cartouches and gilt swags and scrolls along the rims. Painted by Jean-Louis Morin. Holiday travel time!

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 5d

A circa 1757 Sèvres baluster jug (broc ordinaire) decorated with scattered sprays of flowers and with gilt lines along the handle, collar and base and gilt dentils along the spout. Simple but effective, part of the morning toilette.

7 1/2” (19 cm) high, 5 1/2” (14 cm) in diameter.

Usually intended for use as a water pitcher during the toilette, and sometimes including a matching oval basin, these jugs were manufactured in four sizes and were introduced by 1752.

Sales records from 1752-60 indicate brocs of the second size decorated with flowers sold for 48 livres.

For a more detailed description of this form, see Rosalind Savill, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, Volume II, pp. 695-6.

PROVENANCE
Sotheby’s, London, Sale L19301, Style: European Silver, Ceramics and Objects of Vertu, 22 May 2019, lot 442.

With the interlaced L’s in blue enclosing the date letter D for 1757 and the painter’s mark of an anchor for Charles Buteux l’aîné, active 1756-82. Near the underside rim is an undecipherable incised mark.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 6d

A circa 1765 Sèvres soft-paste biscuit porcelain figure of a young girl holding a guitar, on a square base. "La Petite Fille au Guitare" in the factory records, modeled by Falconet. Nicely modeled.

Étienne-Maurice Falconet (1716-1791) was the director of the porcelain sculpture department at Sèvres from 1757 to 1766. François Boucher (1703-1770) began supplying drawings and designs to Vincennes and Sèvres beginning in 1747.

PROVENANCE
Christie’s, London, Sale 7554, European Ceramics and Glass Including the Property of a Collector, 31 March 2008, lot 12 (part).
Christie’s, New York, Sale 14965, Interiors, 12-13 December 2017, lot 454 (part).

MARKS
Incised mark F for Falconet under the base along with a previous inventory label.

MEASUREMENTS
4 5/16” high (11 cm) high, 2” (5.1 cm) wide.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 7d

A small collection of 18th century French and German porcelain snuff boxes and scent bottles. As one has next to the kitchen counter in their small Manhattan apartment. Ha!

Saint-Cloud, Mennecy, Meissen, Chelsea and Chantilly.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 8d

On this day in 1673 Louis XIV granted the faïencier Louis Poterat of Rouen the privilège to set up a manufactory of porcelain in the Chinese style. He did, but we only know of about a dozen pieces to survive. Here's one of them, a potpourri now in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City.

A potpourri with blue and white lambrequins. It was with Errol Manners in London before it was acquired by the Nelson-Atkins Museum. There's another quite nice Rouen potpourri in the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 9d

Here's a variety of English matching tea wares I've accumulated over the years. All with various Worcester marks from the 1770s and decorated with a lightly-gilt imari iron-red and blue ‘sworl’, design. Inspired by Japanese imports it was later named by Worcester as the Queen Charlotte pattern.

MARKS
On the underside of the pot is a blue square fret mark in blue and a previous owner’s inventory label with the written text 154.

MEASUREMENTS
6 1/4” (15.8 cm) in height, 7 3/4” (19.7 cm) in diameter (with handle and spout).

MARKS
On the underside of the cup is a open crescent moon mark in blue and a previous owner’s label with the written text: F.G.H. 3o.

MEASUREMENTS
5 1/4” (13 cm) in diameter.

Hot Milk Jug:

MARKS
On the underside of the cup is a workman’s ‘anchor’ mark in underglaze blue.

MEASUREMENTS
4” (10.2 cm) tall, 4” (10.2 cm) in diameter.

MARKS
On the underside of the tea bowl is a pseudo-Chinese cross hatch mark in blue, under the tea cup is the Worcester crescent moon mark in blue and with no marks under the coffee can

MEASUREMENTS
Coffee Cup: 3 3/8” (8.1 cm) in diameter, 2 3/8” (6 cm) in height
Tea Bowl: 3” (7.6 cm) in diameter, 1 3/4” (4.5 cm) in height.
Tea Cup: 3 1/4” (8.2 cm) in diameter, 2 1/4” (5.7 cm) in height.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 9d

Up early in the U.S. for Sacred Ceramics: Devotional Images in European Porcelain, a symposium coming live today from the V&A. Coffee served here in porcelain cups and saucers, of course. 😄

Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 10d

A 1789 Sèvres porcelain three-sided lobed stand decorated with eight floral sprays, a gilt dentil edge and a blue line with gilt dashes along the rim. With the mark 'MM' for 1789 and the painter’s mark of a stippled crown for Jean-Charles Sioux l’aîné, active 1752-92. Handy for sweets or ice cups.

Known as the plateau Bouret in factory records. 8 1/4” (21 cm) in diameter, 1” (2.5 cm) in height.

This plateau form was designed by Sèvres to display and serve ice cups or dried fruit.

Geoffrey de Bellaigue (Royal Collection, Vol. III, p. 1244) identifies several of these in the royal collection, catalog numbers 145, 152, 162 and 175, several as part of large dinner or dessert services. Possibly named for Etienne-Marcel Bouret (1710-1777), a stockholder in the Eloi Brichard Company and mid-century investor in Sèvres (Wallace Collection, Volume III, p. 971-2).

PROVENANCE
Christie’s, New York, Sale 7254, The Elizabeth Parke Firestone Collection, Part I, 21 March 1991, lot 210 (#416 Firestone inventory label taped to the underside along with the Christie’s auction lot label). Listed in the catalogue as: ‘A Sèvres Shaped-Circular Stand (Plateau de Tasses À Glace Triangle).
Sotheby’s, New York, Sale NO9561, Collections: Silver, Virtu, Ceramics and Russian Works of Art, 19 October 2016. Lot 434 (part). Property of a Park Avenue Collection.

Interlaced L’s in blue and with the date mark MM for 1789 and the painter’s mark of a stippled crown for Jean-Charles Sioux l’aîné, active 1752-92. Inside the foot rim edge is the incised mark Th, modeler unknown.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 12d

An assembled pair of porcelain tea cups and saucers each painted with sprays and sprigs of roses in camaïeu bleu (monochrome blue), and with gilt dentil rims and gilt harebells on the cup handle spines. Sèvres, with date marks for 1765 and 1772. Nicely decorated, probably once part of a tea set.

The two cups are marked with interlaced L’s in underglaze blue with the date letter T for 1772 and the painter’s mark of a dark glass bottle for Pouillot, active 1772-79; one cup is marked with four dots in blue along the inside rim for Théodore (Pierre-Théodore Buteux), active 1765-80.

One saucer is marked with interlaced L’s in blue with date letter M for 1765 and the painter’s mark of D.T. for Nicolas Dutenda, active 1765-69 and 1773-1800.

Incised marks: ML on one cup, no incised mark on the other; an incised lower case t on one saucer and two inverted U marks on the other.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 13d

Yes, though this plate is what we might call a "one-off" example of rose decoration for other decorators. The Sèvres manufactory had already produced plates with decoration like this and Mr. Billingsley here was providing another reference or example for use at Derby. Austere to what came later.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 13d

Usually snuff boxes were indeed kept in a bag or waistcoat pocket, but larger ones were kept at home on the vanity or on a handy table along with other 'objets de virtu'. I suspect animal and figural snuff boxes were placed at the ready near other porcelain items in the salon or sitting room.

Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 13d

I collect mostly French 18th century porcelain, but when it comes to British porcelain we all have to acknowledge William Billingsley as one of the great decorators. He worked seemingly everywhere, but on this date in 1774 he began working at Derby. Here's one of his famous Derby plates. (see ALT)

The "Prentice Plate" by William Billingsley, a sample plate with rose decoration to be used as a guide for other decorators imitating this pattern and style. Now in the Derby Museum and Art Gallery.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 14d

A porcelain snuff box with hinged gilt silver mounts manufactured at Mennecy circa 1750. In the shape of a recumbent dog with suckling puppy painted in brown and red and with a spray of flowers on the exterior and interior of the lid. Sweet.

MARKS
Several obscured discharge marks on the silver mount.

MEASUREMENTS
Length: 3” (7.6 cm); height: 1 5/8” (4.1 cm); depth: 1 3/4” (4.5 cm).

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 17d

Quilts I had made from my marathon and half marathon t-shirts. You'll have one someday! Stay warm and feel better.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 18d

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!

PROVENANCE
The Collection of Marjorie West.
Christie’s, New York, Sale 16115, The Collector: English & Porcelain Furniture, Fine Art, Ceramics & Silver, 10 April, 2018, lot 62.

Diameter: 8” (20.3 cm), 2 1/4” (5.7 cm) deep.

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Reposted by Richard White

Dr Caroline McCaffrey-Howarth @carolinemccaff.bsky.social · 20d

It’s PUBLICATION day!!! www.lundhumphries.com/products/lad...

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 21d

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.

Bonham’s, New York, Sale 28423, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of the Late Manfred Arnold, Part II, and Chinese Works of Art and Paintings, 21 November 2022, lot 157.

6 1/2” (16.5 cm) in diameter, 5 1/8” (13 cm) in height, 6 1/4” (15.9 cm) deep.

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Reposted by Richard White

neil guthrie @nguthrie.bsky.social · 22d

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

Covered dish and oval stand with dark pink, zigzagging marble-patterned central design, surrounded by areas of a sort of abstracted leaf pattern and chequerboard cartouches. White reserves painted with musical instruments, a theatrical mask and a dove resting on puffy clouds. On the sides, white handles in the form of twists with gilding; on the lid, a handle in the form of a bent white branch, also with gilding

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 22d

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.

She married Jacques Damala in 1882 and remained his wife until his death in 1889. She used her married name for the rest of her life.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 23d

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.

Love the face on the spout of this teapot.

Bookplate: Walter Ambrose Heath Harding (1870-1942), I presume. Madingley, Cambridgeshire, perhaps?

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 23d

Felicitas Imperii, indeed.

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