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Paris Biscuit Group of Lovers
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Print Details
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Request Details
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This item is no longer available
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Dates
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Circa 1775
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Dimensions
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25.50cm high
(10.04 inches high)
11.00cm diameter
(4.33 inches diameter)
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Medium
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Porcelain
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Origin
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France
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Description
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A very beautiful Paris biscuit porcelain group of lovers (probably Locré de Roissy, La Courtille)
Jean-Baptiste Locré was a businessman who invested his fortune in building the factory at La Courtille. He invited Laurentius Russinger, a porcelain specialist and sculptor who had worked at the Höchst factory to work there in 1772 and in 1777 appointed him as manager. By the late 1760s the right kind of clay (kaolin) to make glassy Meissen style porcelain, had been discovered in France at Saint-Yrieux, near Limoges. This was used by Russinger to produce a hard-paste porcelain similar to Meissen that could withstand boiling water, which was an important selling point for the factory's wares that they used in their advertisements. Sometimes known as 'La Courtille' after its location in Paris, the factory is also sometimes referred to as Locré, Russinger and Pouyat - François Pouyat was a porcelain dealer in Limoges who supplied the clay. The factory owed him so much money he became one of its partners and eventually he and his three sons took over.
Locré made the same type of objects as the famous Sèvres factory; a wide range of table and tea wares and useful items. A variety of painted and gilded decoration was used from simple floral sprigs to elaborate Etruscan, neo-classical or other fashionable designs. It was even exported to England, where it has been found with English painting by William Billingsley. Biscuit figures were well modelled, doubtless under the direction of Russinger. A Sèvres memo of 1777 spoke of the enterprising Locré having secured moulds of Boizot’s new figures before they were issued by the royal factory. Gérard père, a Sèvres painter, was perhaps the medium of these transactions. Christophe Mö of Mennency and Seceaux worked for Locré and his signature is sometimes found on figures. The factory continued to flourish even during the Revolution.
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