Large Basket in Paris Porcelain Resting on Two Cupids, 1830s

Very large navette-shaped basket in white openwork porcelain with gold highlights, resting on two kneeling cupids carrying their quivers, on a base of the same shape and standing on claw or lion’s paw feet. The oblong base is decorated on both sides with a mask in a central medallion and foliage ending in palmettes. This piece is said to be made in Paris porcelain. What is Porcelaine de Paris? The history of Parisian porcelain began late in the 18th century, in the 1770s, when Limousin kaolin was commercialised and the monopoly on porcelain manufacture that protected the royal Sèvres factory was violated. The French Revolution contributed to the proliferation of factories definitively freed from the Sèvres monopoly. Most of these factories were short-lived. They suffered from the economic crises of the Napoleonic wars. Despite these difficulties, Parisian porcelain manufacturers reached their peak in the 1820s. Thereafter, their numbers declined steadily, as the hope of making a lot of money from porcelain was dashed. Hence the closure of factories or their relocation to the provinces. That’s why it’s consistent to call hard, unmarked porcelain from the first part of the 19th century “porcelaine de Paris”.