SAINT CLOUD c.1710 – 1740 French Soft-Paste Porcelain
An 18th Century French Soft-Paste `Trembleuse` Coffee Cup and a Very Similar Saucer, St.Cloud Factory c.1720-1740. Thickly Potted with a Lead Glaze Over a Gadroon Moulded Form. Decorated with a Lambrequin Design in Blue and White. The Base of the Cup and the Saucer Marked in Cobalt Blue `t S.C T h` the Saucer with a Face in the Sun.
SOLD
- Condition
- N/A
- Size
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- Provenance
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- Stock number
- 23597
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Information
This design is in a style traditionally related to the great Baroque designer to the French court of Louis XIV, Jean Berain (1640-1711). Berain`s style of grotesques and strap-work were used on all types of decorative art from furniture to tapestries, silver ware and just about anything else. His stylistic language is based on a Renaissance understanding of a type of Roman design. However the designs one finds on St.Cloud porcelain are more linear and weightless, they are more in keeping with ornamental prints. Of the more complex designs, a few have been possible to identify from the original source material. They are not taken from Berain designs but from the etchings of a prolific architect Jacques Androuent Du Cereau, who early in his life spent time working in Italy (in the 1530`s). However it seems to me inconceivable that his designs would have been used in the early 18th century unless Berain and his grotesque style were so popular. Both are interpretations of Classical Roman design but from different generations.