Cleveland Museum of Art

Cup and Saucer (Tasse et soucoupe)

Chantilly Porcelain Factory

Date

c. 1775–95

Medium

hard-paste porcelain with underglaze blue decoration

Culture

France, Chantilly, late 18th-early 19th century(?)

Department

Decorative Art and Design

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Early French porcelain factories produced ceramics called soft-paste porcelain. Without the addition of the ingredient kaolin, they could not produce the prized hard-paste porcelain of China and Japan. The Chantilly Porcelain Factory only produced hard-paste porcelain in the last decade of the 1700s. Applying the same techniques used on soft-paste to the new hard-paste formula was difficult, which may account for this object’s slightly grayish color and rough blue decoration. Early 18th-century porcelain attempted to emulate the blue and white design of Chinese ceramics, but the use of this design on a late 18th-century cup is unusual.

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