(Pot a eau) Broc ordinaire 4th size
Cream Jug
1758 (dated)
1758 (dated)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Object Type
This jug and its companion sugar bowl are from a tea service with a matching tray. Such sets are known as 'cabarets' in Britain, where they were usually for one or two people, and as déjeuners in France. Eighteenth-century accounts of tea drinking in France indicate that the tea was made very strong in a small pot, and then diluted with hot water before being drunk. It is unlikely, however, that these pieces were ever used by Horace Walpole, their first owner, as for anything other than display.
People
The service was bought by the writer, designer and collector Horace Walpole in Paris in 1765-6. In 1784 it was in the Great North Bedchamber of his gothic villa at Strawberry Hill, near Twickenham. At Strawberry Hill Walpole combined modern French porcelain with older ceramics collected for their antiquarian interest.
Trading
Walpole purchased these pieces some years after they were made, so probably bought them from the stock of a Paris dealer, rather than as new pieces from the factory. Continental porcelain could not be legally imported to Britain until 1775 unless it was declared to be for private use. Much French and German porcelain was illegally imported for sale in this way.
This jug and its companion sugar bowl are from a tea service with a matching tray. Such sets are known as 'cabarets' in Britain, where they were usually for one or two people, and as déjeuners in France. Eighteenth-century accounts of tea drinking in France indicate that the tea was made very strong in a small pot, and then diluted with hot water before being drunk. It is unlikely, however, that these pieces were ever used by Horace Walpole, their first owner, as for anything other than display.
People
The service was bought by the writer, designer and collector Horace Walpole in Paris in 1765-6. In 1784 it was in the Great North Bedchamber of his gothic villa at Strawberry Hill, near Twickenham. At Strawberry Hill Walpole combined modern French porcelain with older ceramics collected for their antiquarian interest.
Trading
Walpole purchased these pieces some years after they were made, so probably bought them from the stock of a Paris dealer, rather than as new pieces from the factory. Continental porcelain could not be legally imported to Britain until 1775 unless it was declared to be for private use. Much French and German porcelain was illegally imported for sale in this way.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | (Pot a eau) Broc ordinaire 4th size (manufacturer's title) |
| Materials and techniques | Soft-paste porcelain, painted in enamels and gilded |
| Brief description | Cream jug from a breakfast set, porcelain, painted in enamels by Etienne Evans, manufactured by Sèvres Porcelain factory, France, 1758 |
| Physical description | Form: bulbous body, loop handle Ground: white Decoration: birds in landscape in polychrome, cam. bleu flowers |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions |
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| Gallery label | British Galleries:
In truth, I do not mean to make my house so Gothic, as to exclude convenience and modern refinements in luxury', wrote Walpole. He bought this sugar bowl and cream jug (as part of a breakfast set) on one of his trips to Paris in 1765 or 1766, when he spent more than £400 on porcelain.(27/03/2003) |
| Object history | Painted by Etienne Evans (employed 1752-1806) at the Sèvres porcelain factory, near Paris |
| Production | Date letter for 1758 |
| Summary | Object Type This jug and its companion sugar bowl are from a tea service with a matching tray. Such sets are known as 'cabarets' in Britain, where they were usually for one or two people, and as déjeuners in France. Eighteenth-century accounts of tea drinking in France indicate that the tea was made very strong in a small pot, and then diluted with hot water before being drunk. It is unlikely, however, that these pieces were ever used by Horace Walpole, their first owner, as for anything other than display. People The service was bought by the writer, designer and collector Horace Walpole in Paris in 1765-6. In 1784 it was in the Great North Bedchamber of his gothic villa at Strawberry Hill, near Twickenham. At Strawberry Hill Walpole combined modern French porcelain with older ceramics collected for their antiquarian interest. Trading Walpole purchased these pieces some years after they were made, so probably bought them from the stock of a Paris dealer, rather than as new pieces from the factory. Continental porcelain could not be legally imported to Britain until 1775 unless it was declared to be for private use. Much French and German porcelain was illegally imported for sale in this way. |
| Bibliographic reference | Snodin, Michael (ed.), Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill, New Haven : Yale University Press, 2009
p.332 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 277-1876 |
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| Record created | March 27, 2003 |
| Record URL |
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