Chantilly Porcelain

Chantilly porcelain is French soft-paste porcelain produced between 1730 and 1800 by the manufactory of Chantilly in Oise, France. The wares are usually divided into three periods, 1730-51, 1751-1760, and a gradual decline from 1760 to 1800.

The factory made table and tea wares, small vases, and some figures, these all of Orientals.

Foundation

Outbuildings were purchased in March 1730 on the banks of the small river Nonette near the extensive park of his château de Chantilly by Louis Henri de Bourbon, prince de Condé, the prince of the blood exiled from Court, who founded the factory. At this period, the capital investment required for establishing a porcelain manufactory was so extensive that a royal or aristocratic patron was essential; only in Britain was early porcelain manufacture capitalized by the merchant class. The elite wares of Chantilly were intended to compete with Saint-Cloud porcelain, a pioneer among French soft-paste porcelain manufactures, and other small manufactures at Mennecy, under the protection of the duc de Villeroy, as well as with imported Meissen porcelain and Chinese porcelains.

Like the other French factories of this period, and unlike the "Saxon" hard-paste porcelain produced at Meissen, kaolin was not amongst the raw materials of the Chantilly body.

First period: Chinese and Japanese designs (1725-1751)

Condé was an avid collector of East Asian porcelains, both Chinese and Japanese, and his Chantilly manufactory's first decade of output showed the marked influence of Arita porcelain, particularly in the "Kakiemon" palette of soft iron red and blue-green, seen in the tea pot at left

Decorative vases and figurines (or ''magots'') for the chimneypiece were produced, and useful wares included delicately modelled rococo tea-pots and cream jugs, coffee-sets or ''cabarets'' complete with their trays, covered tureens, ''bourdaloues'', plates and cups, down to porcelain flowers to incorporate in chandeliers and knife-handles.

A patent granted to the factory in 1735 by Louis XV specifically describes the right to make porcelain ''façon de Japon'', "in imitation of the porcelain of Japan;" its reference to ten years' successful experiment on the part of Ciquaire Cirou (''ca'' 1700-1751) is the basis for dating the factory's origins to 1725, found in many sources.

At first the body of the ware was covered with an opaque tin-glaze like that used for faience, providing a clean white ground for the sparse decors in enamel colors. Later a slightly yellowish clear lead glaze was employed.

The prince de Condé died in 1740, after which the factory was forced to support itself, and reduced its ambitions. The manager of the factory, until his death in 1751, remained Ciquaire Cirou; under his care Chantilly produced its most characteristic porcelains, which were so valued by collectors in the 19th century that many successful fakes were produced by makers such as Edme Samson, reproducing the famous underglaze factory mark of a hunting horn.

File:Chateau de Chantilly FRA 008.JPG, The ''Salon des porcelaines'', Château de Chantilly.
File:Chantilly soft porcelain terrine 1725-1751.jpg, Chantilly soft-porcelain terrine, Japanese ''Kakiemon'' style, 1725-1751.
File:Chantilly sof porcelain bowl 1725 1751 bis.jpg, Chantilly soft-paste porcelain bowl, with Chinese dragon, 1725-1751.
File:Chantilly soft porcelain bowl 1725 1751.jpg, Chantilly soft-paste porcelain ''seau'', or wine bucket, 1725-1751.
File:Chantilly soft porcelain bottle 1730 1735.jpg, Chantilly soft-paste porcelain bottle in the Japanese ''Kakiemon'' style, 1730-1735.
File:Chantilly sof porcelain teapot 1735 1740.jpg, Chantilly soft-paste porcelain teapot, with Chinese dragon, 1735-1740.
File:Chantilly Magots 1740.jpg, Chantilly soft-paste porcelain Magots, 1740.
File:Chantilly porcelain plate Kakiemon style 1725 1751.jpg, Chantilly porcelain plate, ''Kakiemon'' style, 1725-1751.
File:Chantilly porcelain sugar bowl Kakiemon style 1725 1751.jpg, Chantilly porcelain sugar bowl, ''Kakiemon'' style, 1725-1751.
File:Chantilly milk pot 1725 1751.jpg, Chantilly milk pot in ''Kakiemon'' style, 1725-1751.
File:Chantilly pharmacological jar with Kakiemon designs 1725 1751.jpg, Chantilly pharmacological jar, with ''Kakiemon'' designs, 1725-1751.
File:Chantilly plate with Japanese Kakiemon design 1725 1751.jpg, Chantilly soft-paste porcelain plate with Japanese ''Kakiemon'' design, 1725-1751.
File:French bourdeloue, c. 1735, Chantilly, soft-paste porcelain, Honolulu.JPG, French bourdaloue, Chantilly, soft-paste porcelain, c. 1735.

Intermediate period (1751-1760)

Potters from Chantilly were induced to move to Vincennes, initiating the porcelain manufacture that would receive royal patronage at Sèvres and absorb the French market for porcelain of the highest refinement; letters patent of 1752 granting a monopoly to Vincennes of polychrome decors further reduced Chantilly's scope.

File:Chantilly porcelain 1750 1760.jpg, Chantilly soft-paste porcelain, 1750-1760.
File:Chantilly sof porcelain 1750 1760.jpg, Chantilly soft-paste porcelain, 1750-1760.
File:Chantilly soft porcelain 1750 1760 bis.jpg, Chantilly soft-paste porcelain, 1750-1760.
File:Figure Seated on a Lion, about 1750, Chantilly Porcelain Factory, France, soft-paste porcelain with enamel decoration - Cleveland Museum of Art - DSC09032.JPG, Figure seated on a lion, Chantilly Porcelain Factory, about 1750.
File:Chantilly soft porcelain plate circa 1760.jpg, Chantilly soft-porcelain plate, circa 1760.

Late period (1760-1800)

The factory at Chantilly produced some wares in the Vincennes-Sèvres taste but, especially after its sale in 1781 by Dame Adam, was in rapid decline towards the end of the Ancien Régime, squeezed between the competition of Sèvres at the high end of the market, and, after the Anglo-French commercial treaty of 1788, by Wedgwood cream ware for table wares. Its manager, the Englishman Christopher Potter, bought it in the early stages of the French Revolution (1792), but it closed shop in 1800. In fact, Potter set up two different manufactures, the first one early 1792 and the second in 1795.

See also

* Orientalism in early modern France

References

{{Authority control
Ceramics manufacturers of France
Porcelain of France
1730 establishments in France
French companies established in 1730
Manufacturing companies established in 1730