Teapot

Saint-Cloud factory

ca. 1725 · Soft-paste porcelain · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

The decoration of this teapot was left unfinished, perhaps due to the technical problems evident on the spout, and thus it serves as a wonderful document of the technique of enamel painting on porcelain in the 18th century. A piece of porcelain was fired in the kiln at least several times; the number of firings was determined by the numbers of colors employed and the temperatures at which these colors fused to the glaze. Both red and yellow enamel would have been added to this teapot, and the Japanese-influenced composition would have become legible once they had been fired. This extremely rare survival from the 18th century was given to the Metropolitan by the late Jean Le Corbeiller, whose late wife, Clare Le Corbeiller, was the curator of European porcelain at this institution for many decades.

Artist

Saint-Cloud factory

Date

ca. 1725

Medium

Soft-paste porcelain

Culture

French, Saint-Cloud

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Gift of Jean Le Corbeiller, in memory of Clare Le Corbeiller, 2004