THE PORCELAIN LOCRE, CIRCA 1775-85, BLUE CROSSED TORCH MARKS TO THE INTERIOR

The Locré manufactory (1772-1824) is amongst the best known of the Paris factories. J.B. Locré de Roissy established the factory as a 'manufacture de porcelaine allemande on the rue Fontaine-au-Roi, and several months later hired the modeller Laurent Russinger as director. In 1777 Locré retired and in 1787 Russinger purchased the the manufactory 'avec toutes les pratiques qui peuvent y être attachés, les trois fours, le moulin à cheval et la marque dud. sieur Locré' (R. de Plinval de Guillebon, Faïence et Porcelaine de Paris, XVIIIe-XIXe Siècle, Paris, 1995, p.162). In 1792 Russinger purchased another building on the same street to build a more functional factory, spending over 200,000 francs. At the death of Mme Russinger in 1797, economic hardship was rife in Paris and the building had devalued to 58,000 francs, putting the manufactory into financial difficulty. In the same year, though, Russinger received a much-needed cash-infusion from his clay purveyor, François Pouyat. In 1799, Pouyat and Russinger added their names to the firm. The crossed torch mark seen on this pair of vases was used by the factory from 1773, and is sometimes erroneously confused with the crossed swords of Meissen (See R. Plinval de Guillebon, op.cit pp. 160-162.

Examples of other ormolu-mounted Locré porcelain are known, including a pair of vases in the musée du Louvre, with jewelled enamelling by Coteau, illustrated in P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorées Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1987, pp. 125, fig. 162.