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Lot Essay
The Paris factory responsible for the present service was in operation from 1790-1800. During these ten years, it passed through a variety of hands and was located in two different premises. An inventory of the firm's holdings made when it changed hands for the last time notes a wide range of wares - everything from the usual service pieces to buttons, chandeliers and tankards. The decoration described sounds typical of the period - butterflies, landscapes, arabesques, chinoiseries, and flowers.
According to Régine de Plinval de Guillebon [Faïence et Porcelaine de Paris XVIII e - XIX Siècles (1995), pp. 180, 423, 438, 440], on 25 June 1789, Christopher Potter, an Englishman with a reputation as an unlucky speculator, applied for an exclusive priviledge of seven years duration to start a company in France devoted to decorative painting and printing on glass, porcelain and faience that would employ over 500 workers. He was turned down. Nevertheless, he took premises on the rue de Crossol in Paris. Operating under the trade name Manufacture du Prince de Galles, he executed his first order on 12 September 1790.
Potter stayed with the firm for a little over two years, leasing it to Etienne Louis Blanceron, its director, who then bought the company outright in 1794 for 188,000 livres of which 128,000 was for the porcelain. This explains how Potter had been able to simulaneously assume the running of the factory at Chantilly, which he then bought outright in 1792.
Blanceron, in turn, moved the firm's premises to the rue des Trois Bornes in 1798 at which point its holdings were valued at only 166,000 livres. The last two years of its existence, the firm was owned by a man called Patrault.
With each change of owner, the firm's marks changed. Given the style of decoration on the present service and the many pieces marked in a dark underglaze blue EB, it can be dated to the early years of Blanceron's tenure.
For another extensive dinner service of similar date by this factory, see Christie's London, 18 May 1999, lot 122.
According to Régine de Plinval de Guillebon [Faïence et Porcelaine de Paris XVIII e - XIX Siècles (1995), pp. 180, 423, 438, 440], on 25 June 1789, Christopher Potter, an Englishman with a reputation as an unlucky speculator, applied for an exclusive priviledge of seven years duration to start a company in France devoted to decorative painting and printing on glass, porcelain and faience that would employ over 500 workers. He was turned down. Nevertheless, he took premises on the rue de Crossol in Paris. Operating under the trade name Manufacture du Prince de Galles, he executed his first order on 12 September 1790.
Potter stayed with the firm for a little over two years, leasing it to Etienne Louis Blanceron, its director, who then bought the company outright in 1794 for 188,000 livres of which 128,000 was for the porcelain. This explains how Potter had been able to simulaneously assume the running of the factory at Chantilly, which he then bought outright in 1792.
Blanceron, in turn, moved the firm's premises to the rue des Trois Bornes in 1798 at which point its holdings were valued at only 166,000 livres. The last two years of its existence, the firm was owned by a man called Patrault.
With each change of owner, the firm's marks changed. Given the style of decoration on the present service and the many pieces marked in a dark underglaze blue EB, it can be dated to the early years of Blanceron's tenure.
For another extensive dinner service of similar date by this factory, see Christie's London, 18 May 1999, lot 122.