Today's purchases, porcelain from Marie Antoinette's factory

18th century shell shaped dish from Marie Antoinette's factory

 Three pieces of 18th century porcelain from French Queen Marie Antoinette's porcelain factory in Paris known as Fabrique de la Reine located on Rue Thiroux. I have been collecting porcelain from this 18th century porcelain factory since the mid 1990's. One day I will do a blog on my collection. First piece is a shell shape dish hand painted with scattered Puce colored flowers with interlocking Loral leaf and gold gilt trim. The color Puce was a very popular color during the time of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. In French, puce literally means "flea, and the usual coloration of a flea is dark reddish-brown or dark purplish-brown; specifically, it is the color of the belly of a flea. Madam De Guillebon's now famous book 'Porcelain of Paris" has a shell shaped dish like this on page 95. I also bought a pair of porcelain dinner plates in a different pattern then the shell dish but still painted with scattered blue & puce flowers in the same pattern as the shell dish on page 95 in De Guillebon's book.

 

Pair of dinner plates from Marie Antoinette's factory

 HISTORY. Andre-Marie Leboeuf established an hard paste porcelain factory in the rue Thiroux in 1778. His wares immediately met with such phenomenal sasuccess that in the following year he was heavily fined for trenching upon the privileges reserved to Sevres in the matter of certain processes and the style of decoration. Of all the factories that may be considered as competitors with Sevres, Leboeuf's was the one of which the Sevres management had most cause to be jealous and apprehensive. If Leboeuf's work is closely compared with that of Sevres, it can be seen at a glance why the authorities of the latter establishment were greatly disquieted.

French Queen Marie Antoinette

Crown A mark of the Paris rue Thiroux factory

 After his uncomfortable experience with Sevres and the police authorities, Leboeuf secured the protecting patronage of the Queen Marie Antoinette, who gave him the right to mark his china with her monogram or A initial. She gave him further encouragement by ordering from him some of the china for her dairy at Versailles, and also various choice pieces which she gave to her friends as presents. From this royal patronage and the great popularity his work enjoyed, Leboeuf's china came to be known as "Porcelaine a la Reine." After the Revolution the works passed into other hands. Both the letter A, in underglaze blue, and A beneath the Queen's crown, in either red or gold on-glaze, appear as marks on this truly beautiful china.

Milk dish made by Rue Thiroux for Marie Antoinette's dairy at Versailles sold for 65,000. euro