Saucer

Art Historical Context

This delicate saucer, produced by the Saint-Cloud in France around 1710–20, exemplifies early European porcelain innovation. Crafted soft-paste porcelain—aable mixture of white clay, ground glass, and other materials fired at lower temperatures than true hard-paste porcelain—the piece measures just 5¼ inches in diameter, perfect for serving chocolate or coffee in fashionable aristocratic households. Saint-Cloud, established around 1690 near Paris, was among the first French manufactories to rival Chinese imports, blending technical experimentation with elegant simplicity. The factory's soft-p...

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...