It’s hard not to love Sevres Porcelain, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has a stunning collection.  From the moment you see it, you can sense it’s aristocratic roots. The exquisite shapes and ornate details, the celestial blue color, the gilding, it all screams Royalty.

Extraordinarily costly and fragile, objects produced at Sevres were prized as status symbols and exchanged as diplomatic gifts by their royal and aristocratic owners. While some pieces  possess seemingly functional forms, many were intended solely for display.  Made from soft-paste porcelain that was difficult to manipulate and fire, it renders the manufactory’s  achievements all the more impressive. Bold innovative models, such as the pink elephant vase shown above, were regularly introduced in the realm of decorative objects. Did I mention that we’re talking about porcelain made over 250 years ago? The turquoise blue pieces, know as celestial blue,  date to about 1753 when they made their debut for Louis XV. Nearly five hundred pieces in all, were created for his royal highness in this debut collection.

Sevres was founded in 1738. In 1740, the Vincennes manufactory was created with the support of Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour.  In 1756, the factory moved to Sevres, near Madame de Pompadour’s Bellevue Palace, and became the Royal factory in 1759. After the French Revolution the factory was no longer a royal enterprise, and not surprisingly lost much of it’s clientele. In 1800 Alexandre Brongniart, age 30,  was appointed as the administrator of the factory, a position he held until his death in 1847.  The factory is now run by the Ministry of Culture, and continues to be located in Sevres France.

I found this great video with Dame Rosalind Savill at Toronto’s Gardiner Museum. Watch as she discusses just how many artisans are required to create this stunning Chinoiserie Sevres Porcelain piece… but I will warn you, the table the vase is sitting on wobbles just a tad more than it should.