A Pair of 24" 19th/20th-Century Gilt Bronze Mounted Sevres Style Porcelain Urns
Monumental Pair of 24" Bronze Mounted Figural Porcelain Vases
Each baluster form, decorated with a musical maiden to one side and a putto to the other, signed Bombois, against a cobalt ground with gilt highlights
Height 24 inches
19th/20th century
The Manufacture Nationale de Sevres is one of the principal European porcelain manufactories. It is located in Sevres, Hauts-de-Seine, France. It is the continuation of Vincennes porcelain, founded in 1740, which moved to Sevres in 1756. It has been owned by the French crown or government since 1759 and has always maintained the highest standards of quality. Almost immediately, it replaced Meissen porcelain as the standard-setter among European porcelain factories, retaining this position until at least the 19th century. Its production is still largely based on the creation of contemporary objects today. It became part of the Cite de la ceramique in 2010 with the Musee national de ceramique, and since 2012 with the Musee national Adrien Dubouche in Limoges. The story begins, not in the French town of Sevres, but in the German town of Meissen in 1708. A potter named Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus had just discovered the secret to making hard-paste porcelain, a type of fine porcelain that no one outside of China and Japan knew how to make. Porcelain is known as white gold at the time, porcelain was one of the most highly prized materials in Europe in the 18th Century. Meissen quickly became successful and rich.