The factory at Saint-Cloud was France's first commercially viable producer of porcelain. Initially it made only pottery, but in the early 1690s the factory perfected its recipe for soft-paste porcelain. The enterprise was supported by the king's brother, the Duc d'Orléans, who had a château nearby and visited regularly. Its earliest productions are characterised by a creamy-white body with delicate underglaze blue decoration, derived from cobalt. Shapes were often copied from silverware but Saint-Cloud was also pioneering in the development of overglaze enamel colours, of which this tureen, with its fanciful chinoiserie decoration is an excellent example.