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.
French 19th Century Louis XVI Style Marble & Ormolu Lyre Clock & Candelabra Set
By Lerolle Freres
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A Very Fine French Late 19th Century Louis XVI Style White Marble and Ormolu 'Lyre' Clock Garniture Set. The lyre-shaped white marble clock is mounted with finely chased ormolu throu...
Marble, Bronze, Ormolu
A French 19th Century Napoleon III Sévres Style Porcelain and Ormolu Mounted Urn
By Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A very fine French 19th Century Napoleon III Sévres Style Porcelain and Ormolu Mounted Covered Urn, the 360 degree painted urn centered with an 18th century scene of a young Princess...
Ormolu
A French 19th C. Louis XV Style Ormolu Cherub Clock & Candelabra Garniture Set
Located in Los Angeles, CA
An Assembled Very Fine French 19th Century Louis XV Style Gilt Bronze and White Marble Figural Mantel Clock and Candelabra Garniture Set. The finely chased ormolu clock body, with it...
Marble, Bronze, Ormolu
French 19th Century Louis XIV Style Empire Ormolu Clock Garniture, Raingo Frers
By Raingo Frères
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A very fine and palatial French 19th century Louis XIV style Empire figural ormolu three-piece clock and candelabra garniture suite, comprising of a gilt-bronze clock and a pair of t...
Bronze
Fine French 19th Century Napoleon III Sèvres Style Porcelain Urn Signed Ch Fuchs
By Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A fine French 19th century Napoleon III Sèvres style porcelain and ormolu-mounted covered urn, the 360 degree painted urn centered with an 18th century romantic scene of two ladies a...
Ormolu
A French 19th-20th Century Gilt-Metal 3-Piece Clock and Candelabra Garniture Set
By Japy Frères
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A French 19th-20th Century Gilt-Metal Three-Piece Clock and Candelabra Garniture Set in a Chippendale-Arabesque flavor. The urn shaped clock with a scalloped body flanked by lion mas...
Metal
19th Century French Louis XVI Clock Garniture with Sévres Porcelain and Ormolu
By Arnold & Lewis 1
Located in London, GB
A Garniture de Chemineé in the Louis XVI taste By Arnold & Lewis (late Simmons) The mantle clock, and its two matched vases, are constructed in jewelled 'Sèvres' style porcelain, hand and polychrome decorated, with gilt highlights and finely gilt bronze. The clock, rising from toupie feet, supports a rectangular base frame with rounded ends, set with cast stiff leaf decoration, and having inset Roi de Bleu and gilt work panels; over, the circular porcelain dial, signed by the maker (qv) has Roman numerals and blued steel hands, and is set over a central porcelain panel with a bucolic scene, and flanked by elliptical female portraits; the ends are curved and conformingly polychrome and gilt decorated; the whole is surmounted by a decorated twin handled urn, having a pine cone finial, set on an addorsed acanthi gilt bronze base. The two train clock...
Bronze
Antique Clock Garniture with Sèvres Style Porcelain and Ormolu
By Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres
Located in London, GB
This fantastic porcelain clock garniture contains three vases, one of which has been mounted with a ormolu clock dial with jewels surrounding it. The vases are decorated in the style of the Sèvres Porcelain manufacturers, with cartouches to the front and back. The panels on the front depict ladies and putti in a landscape, while the reverse sides depict riverbanks. The vases are set on ormolu bases with canted angles, and feature twin ormolu handles which take the form of masks. The central vase is surmounted by an ormolu putti...
Ormolu
19th Century Sèvres Style Ormolu and Painted Porcelain Clock Set
Located in New York, NY
An exquisite 19th century French gilt bronze and hand painted jeweled Sevres Porcelain clock set. Fine gilt bronze and hand painted jeweled...
Ormolu, Bronze
Porcelain Garniture With Clock, France, Second Half of 19th Century
By Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres
Located in Rīga, LV
Porcelain garniture with clock, France, second half of 19th Century Additional Information: Materials: Bronze, porcelain, gilding Vintage from the 19th century Style: Sèvres P...
Bronze
Gilt Bronze and Sèvres Style Porcelain Clock Garniture
By Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres
Located in London, GB
Gilt bronze and Sèvres style porcelain clock garniture French, 19th century Measures: Clock height 46cm, width 29cm, depth 24c...
Ormolu, Bronze
Fine Ormolu and Sevres Porcelain Antique French Clock Set
By Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres
Located in Belper, Derbyshire
A stunning antique French ormolu clock set, circa 1870, mounted with exquisite Sèvres style porcelain with Rose Pompadour pink ground. Pan...
Ormolu
