Manufacture nationale de Sèvres

Elephant vase with candleholders, c. 1760

In 1740, the Manufacture de Vincennes was founded, thanks to the support of Louis XV's polish born wife, Queen Marie Leszczyńska who was noted as an avid porcelain collector in her early years as Queen. According to the memoirs of the Duke de Luynes it was Queen Marie who originally promoted porcelain in Versailles by having regular commissions such as the first colored porcelain flowers presented to her by the company in her royal apartments in April 1748 in order to compete with the Chantilly porcelain and Meissen Porcelain in Germany. Louis XV's mistress Madame de Pompadour then followed and became a patron in 1751. By 1756, the manufactury was moved to a building in Sèvres, built at the initiative of Madame de Pompadour, near her château de Bellevue.

One hundred thirty metres long and four storeys high, the building was erected between 1753 and 1756 by the architect Laurent Lindet on the site of a farm called "de la Guyarde." There was a central pavilion surmounted by a pediment with a clock from the old royal glass-makers on the fourth level, with two long wings terminating in corner pavilions at each end. In front of the pavilion was a "public" courtyard, enclosed by a wrought-iron fence. This front area was decorated twice a month in order to hold parties for visitors.

The ground floor of the building contained clay reserves, books and storerooms of raw materials. The first floor contained the workshops of the moulders, plasterers, sculptors, engravers and the ovens. On the second floor were the sculptors, turners, repairers and packers. Finally, the painters, gilders and makers of animals and figures worked in the loft

Jean-Claude Chambellan Duplessis served as artistic director of the Vincennes porcelain manufactory and its successor at Sèvres from 1748 to his death in 1774. The manufactory was bought by the King in 1759, although Madame de Pompadour was allowed effective free rein to oversee it. A period of superb quality in both design and production followed, creating much of the enduring reputation of French porcelain. The light-hearted Rococo was given a more serious air, often by restricting it to the painting, rather than the porcelain shape.[1]

Hard-paste porcelain plate from a set of 8 pieces, with the monogram (in Roman letters) "PP" for Paul I of Russia (Pavel Petrovitch), 1773.

Detail of palace urn by Sèvres

Initially, the manufactory produced soft-paste porcelain. In 1768, the Bordeaux chemist, Vilaris and his friend Jean-Baptiste Darnet discovered the first deposit of kaolin on French soil at Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche to the south of Limoges. On 13 February 1771, the Comte de Thy de Milly of the Royal Academy of Sciences sent the academy a report on the creation of Hard-paste porcelain. This report was published in 1777 in volume 7 of the encyclopedia, Art de la porcelaine. This work derived from his observations of the different manufacturies of Germany, especially Meissen. "Up to this time, the manufacturies of France - Sèvres not excepted - have only produced glass porcelain, which only has some qualities of the real thing...".[2]

Hard-paste porcelain began to be manufactured in Sèvres after 1770, but soft-paste was also continued, only finally being dropped in 1804.[3] Vincennes had made a certain amount of painted plaques that were sold to furniture-makers to be inset in furniture, but at Sèvres these became a significant part of production.[4] Figures were almost entirely in unglazed biscuit porcelain, an "invention" of Vincennes.[5]

Louis-Simon Boizot was director between 1774 and 1800. Even before the French Revolution, the initially severe style of Neoclassicism had begun to turn grandiose and ornate in goods for the courts of the Ancien Régime. This trend deepened with the rise of Napoleon, which followed a difficult period for French porcelain factories. The Empire style was marked by lavish gilding, strong colours, and references to military conquests; Napoleon's ultimately unsuccessful expedition to Egypt sparked a fashion for "Neo-Egyptian" wares.

In 1800 Napoleon, as Minister of the Interior, appointed Alexandre Brongniart director at Sèvres; he was to stay 47 years, making many changes. The factory concentrated on tableware and larger decorative pieces such as vases and table centrepieces, much of it for the government to use or give as diplomatic presents.[6]

The Empire style grew more elaborate and ostentatious as the century continued, developing most aspects of "Victorian" taste in a French style. Under the Second Empire from 1852 to 1870, there was a revival of Louis XVI style at Sèvres, often more heavily painted and gilded. Many of the old moulds which the factory had kept were used again.[7] Henri Victor Regnault became director in 1854.

In 1875, the manufactory was transferred to buildings which had been specially built by the French state next to the Parc de Saint-Cloud. It is still on this site today, classed as a Monument historique, but still in operation.

Sèvres turned to a more diluted version of Japonisme after 1870, and in 1897, a new artistic director, A. Sandier, introduced new Art Nouveau styles, followed about a decade later by styles leading to Art Deco.[8]

In 1920, the Treaty of Sèvres, the peace treaty between the Ottoman Empire and Allies at the end of World War I, was signed at the factory.

At the Manufacture de Vincennes, in 1748, a "floristry" composed of twenty young girls was established under the direction of Madame Gravant. It continued its activities until 1753, when women were banned from the factory. In 1756 Sèvres employed two hundred male workers.

"... The few women who continued to work at Vincennes and then at Sèvres, after this [the floristry], henceforth worked from home, picking up the wares, taking them home and bringing them back each day, despite the risk of breaking the delicate objects which they painted and burnished.".[9]

Two-storey Sèvres kiln, 1864

The ceramicist Ambroise Milet was Director of the Paste Kilns and Chief of Manufacture at the manufactury before he left it in 1883 at the age of 53. One of the key tasks of Ambroise Milet was the construction of six great Anagama kilns in 1877. These kilns are today classed as French monuments historiques.

The kilns consist of a cylindrical body separated into three levels. The lowest is called the "first laboratoire" and is 2.6 m in diameter and 3 m tall. The middle level is called the "second laboratoire" and is 2.6 metres in diameter and 2 metres high. The top level is the 2-metre-high chimney cone. The firebox is an opening at the bottom of the first laboratoire, 1 metre high, 0.58 metres wide and 0.29 metres deep.[11] In the vault between the first and second laboratoires, is a large flue at the centre and 9 small ones around the edge. These flues serve to guide the flames and release the heated gas. Grills, called "flue-guards" are arranged to divide the flames. At the base of the second laboratoire, a little fire box helps to increase the temperature further. The oven contains four fireboxes for distributing the heat effectively.

Only birch wood is used to heat the oven. Its strong and quick combustion is uniform, its flames are long and it releases few cinders. Only this wood can bring the oven to the high temperatures required (800 °C in the small fires, nearly 1300 °C in the main one). The logs of wood are 73 cm long. The oven can fire biscuit porcelain in 15–16 hours and glass or glazed porcelain in 11–12 hours. One firing requires 25 cubic metres of wood, which is burnt over 48 hours using a specialised technique in order to raise the temperature. The oven then takes between fifteen and twenty days to cool down. The wall which blocks the oven door is dismantled in order to empty the oven. A hundred pieces are fired at once, depending on their exact size.

The firing process gives the incomparable enamel quality to the porcelain which cannot be obtained by other techniques. The cause of this is the high uniformity of heat in the oven and the extremely gradual cooling process. Among other things, these ovens are uniquely capable of producing large pieces, which Sèvres has made a speciality.

The last large firing with wood took place in October 2006. Nearly 180 pieces were produced for l'Epreuve du Feu ("the trial by flame"), the name of the exhibition which these pieces were displayed in at the Parisian gallery of the manufactury, before they were dispersed. The opening of the oven, as it began to burn, was broadcast live on television. The next firing will be announced on the official website of the manufactury.

Aside from these exceptional firings, the manufactory uses electric ovens for all contemporary production.