Svend Eriksen

Geoffrey de Bellaigue

with a foreword by R. J. Charleston

Danish text translated by R. J. Charleston

The history of European porcelain-making has

been dominated by two great factories, at Meissen

and Sevres. In spite of the lead gained by Meissen

indiscovering the seeret of hard-paste porcelain

before 1720, Sevres had gained the ascendancy by

the 1750s and retained it into the 19th century.

Thhe richness of its coloured grounds, the supreme

quality of its painters and the opulence of its gilt

decoration gave Sèvres porcelain a special appeal to

patrons in France and abroad, and particularly in

England where the future George IV began the

acquisition of what is now the finest collection of

Sevres in the world. It is remarkable that Svend

Eriksen and Geoffrey de Bellaigue's book, which

makes use of many newly discovered documents in

the Sevres archives, is the first comprehensive,

general book in English to have been written on

the factory in its heyday between 1740 and 1800.

It is likely to become the standard work on the

subject.

A full account of the factory from its origins at

Vincennes to its move to Sèvres in 1756 and rescue

from bankruptey by Louis XV in 1759 followed by

Louis' lavish patronage, and finally to the takeover

by Brongniart in 1800, leads on to separate sections

on the early and later wares which encompassed

sculpture, vases, tableware and other

miscellaneous items such as snuff-boxes,

watch-cases and porcelain accessories for furniture.

Further sections cover the shaping of pieces, their

colouring, gilding and decoration, and marks.

Svend Eriksen, author of Early Neo-Classicism in

France, is a world authority on 18th-century French

art; and Geoffrey de Bellaigue, Surveyor of the

Queen's Works of Art, who is responsible for the

Royal Collection of Sevres, is a long-standing

Sevres expert. Both authors were curators at

Waddesdon Manor and both have written other

important works on Sevres.