Cane handle

Saint-Cloud factory

possibly ca. 1740

Cane handle by Saint-Cloud factory

Medium

Soft-paste porcelain

Dimensions

2 1/2 × 5 1/4 in. (6.4 × 13.3 cm)

Classification

Ceramics-Porcelain

Culture

French, possibly Saint-Cloud

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Museum

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Credit

Gift of Mrs. Morris Hawkes, 1924

Accession Number

24.214.12

Tags

Men

Art Historical Context

This delicate cane handle, crafted by the renowned Saint-Cloud porcelain factory around 1740, exemplifies elegance of early 18th-century French arts. Made from soft-paste porcelain pioneering European substitute for rare Chinese hard-paste porcelain—this small sculpture (just 2½ × 5¼ inches) likely features a finely modeled male figure, reflecting the factory's expertise in miniature figural work. Saint-Cloud, active near Paris from the late 17th century, was among the first to produce this translucent, creamy material, fired at lower temperatures to achieve a soft glow prized by the aristocra...

About the Artist

Saint-Cloud factory · 16931766

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...

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