Box with cover
ca. 1720–40
Medium
Soft-paste porcelain
Dimensions
Overall (with cover): 4 1/16 × 5 15/16 in. (10.3 × 15.1 cm); Diameter (body): 5 3/4 in. (14.6 cm)
Classification
Ceramics-Porcelain
Culture
French, Saint-Cloud
Department
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of R. Thornton Wilson, in memory of Florence Ellsworth Wilson, 1954
Accession Number
54.147.12a, b
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate *Box with Cover* from the Saint-Cloud factory, crafted around 1720–40, exemplifies early French porcelain artistry. Made of soft-paste porcelain—a European innovation blending clay, glass frit, and white ash for a translucent, ivory-like glow—this petite lidded container measures just over 4 inches tall and nearly 6 inches wide. Adorned with floral motifs it served as a luxurious trinket or snuff box, reflecting the era's fascination with refined, intimate objects. Saint-Cloud, established in the late 17th century near Paris, was among France's pioneering porcelain manufactories...
About the Artist
Saint-Cloud factory · 1693–1766
The Saint-Cloud porcelain factory, situated on the Seine in the town of Saint-Cloud near Paris, revolutionized European ceramics as the first to manufacture soft-paste porcelain commercially, beginning in 1693. Originally established around 1664-1666 as a faience workshop, it shifted to porcelain under Pierre Chicaneau, a potter whose experiments yielded a frit-based paste with a warm yellowish or...