Paris Porcelain Boxes
Hard-paste boxes painted in and around Paris are among the easiest antique porcelain boxes to find. Knowing the decorating studios and their borrowed marks is the key to telling them apart.
Why collectors have always kept porcelain boxes
Boxes are about as old as the urge to protect something precious. Marion Klamkin, in The Collector’s Book of Boxes, put it this way: “Beautiful boxes, perhaps more than any other small decorative antiques, have been preserved and collected.”
The archaeological record bears her out. Tutankhamen’s tomb in Egypt held a large number of boxes in many shapes, among them cosmetic boxes with mirrors, game boxes and a jeweled double box. Small boxes known as pyxides held salves and toiletries, and terra cotta boxes were being made in India by 2500 BC.
Porcelain arrived much later. When European potters perfected porcelain in the mid-18th century, fashionable society became fascinated with small porcelain boxes. Artists made them in every shape and size and painted them with great care. The work took time and real skill, and the smooth glazed surface suited painters so well that many treated a box lid as a miniature canvas. The range of a porcelain box collection is limited only by the collector’s imagination and budget.
What Paris porcelain is and where it was made
In 2011, of all the antique porcelain boxes on the market, the ones made in Paris were among the easiest to find, and most were of excellent quality. Paris porcelain is hard paste, made or decorated in and around the city from the 1770s until the late 19th century.
Many studios grew up in the old faience district in the northeast of the city. By around 1850 there were about 75 decorators working in the area. Most of them did not make porcelain at all. They bought undecorated white ware from factories in Limoges and painted and gilded it in their own shops, which is why the line between a Paris piece and Limoges porcelain can be thin.
The forms are familiar to anyone who has handled 18th-century French decorative arts: hinged snuff boxes, etuis, patch boxes for beauty marks and larger table boxes. Many are heavily painted with flowers and finished in raised gilt, and some take whimsical shapes.
Copies, phony Sevres marks and unmarked Paris boxes
Most antique snuff boxes found today are likely to be Paris copies of earlier designs by Sevres, Chantilly, St. Cloud or Mennecy. These later boxes are almost as interesting as the 18th-century originals, but they call for a careful eye.
Marks are not much help on their own. At least half of the Paris boxes carried no trademark at all. Others bore a phony Sevres mark, and only a few carried the mark of the Paris studio that actually decorated them. A box with interlocking L’s, in other words, is not automatically Sevres. Collectors who want a broader primer on the clues that give away later porcelain can turn to the tell-tale signs on reproduction porcelain.
Jacob Petit and Porcelain de Paris
Jacob Petit is one of the best-known Paris porcelain decorators. Trained as a painter, he toured porcelain factories and decorating studios across Europe before opening his own company in 1834 on the Rue de Bondy. A few years later he set up a larger factory in Fontainebleau that produced only ornamental wares. He drew on many manufacturers and periods, and his work was highly decorative. He sold the business to one of his employees in 1862. A box signed “Petit (JP)” would be rare and expensive.
Porcelain de Paris began on the Rue de la Pierre-Levée in 1773 under Jean Baptiste Locré. Three generations of the Clauss family ran it from 1829, and after several more changes in management the Achille Bloch family took over in 1888. In 2011 the company was still producing luxury porcelain and expensive table services.
Porcelain de Paris made many hinged snuff boxes, etuis, patch boxes and table boxes, often covered in hand-painted flowers and raised gilt. Shapes included ovals, hearts and cartouches, along with musical instruments, bellows, kegs and shoes. At first the firm copied other factories’ marks: the crowned N of Capodimonte in Naples, the interlocking L’s of Sevres and the crossed swords of Meissen. It began applying its own marks around 1869. One example from the Bloch years is a hinged, cartouche-shaped trinket box made about 1887 to 1900 and signed by the artist M. Garcia, with a pink ground, raised gold cartouches, two cupids on the lid and landscapes on the sides.
Samson, the most famous Paris reproduction house
Edme Samson founded Samson, Edme et Cie in Paris in 1845 to reproduce early ceramics shown in museums and private collections. His son Emile moved the factory to Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis, in 1864, and the company closed in 1969.
Samson copied almost everything: Meissen, Sevres, Chelsea and Derby porcelain, Italian majolica, Persian-style wares and Palissy. The firm made many boxes after Chinese famille rose styles of 1720 to 1790 and Japanese Imari. To imitate the soft paste boxes of St. Cloud and Chantilly, it used cream-colored earthenware.
Samson did not set out to deceive anyone and claimed that all of his products would be clearly marked. Later, some dishonest dealers removed the Samson marks to pass the pieces off as originals. His snuff and patch boxes copied Chinese export boxes with armorial themes and polychrome flowers. He also made Chantilly-style figural boxes, including a man and woman in bed and a lady on a chamber pot. One such figural snuff box from about 1890 to 1910 measures 3.25 by 2 1/8 by 2 inches and is painted with polychrome Oriental flowers. Another Samson snuff box from about 1876 to 1884 is a replica of an early hinged design with a coat of arms and floral decoration.
Smaller Paris porcelain box studios to know
Paul Bocquillon of Faubourg St. Denis is little known now, but in the 19th century he specialized in reproducing old china and earthenware. He made a variety of hinged boxes, including Capodimonte-style examples, and used a gold anchor mark.
Feuillet was a decorating shop on the Rue de la Paix from about 1817 to 1845. Feuillet painted Sevres blanks in the 18th-century style, and one of his marks was a pair of encircled L’s with an F in the center.
Mansard & Houry, a partnership active from the end of the 19th century into the early 20th, made reproductions of Sevres boxes, including good casket boxes. Pouyat & Russinger descended from Locré’s company: Russinger was sole owner from 1787 to 1797, then brought in Pouyat and Sons from about 1808 to 1825 or later. The factory made outstanding porcelain in the Meissen style and some exceptional boxes. Arnold Ruh-Leprince is another name found on Paris boxes, such as a bellows-shaped hinged snuff box of the 1890s with a courting scene on the lid and raised gilt. Collectors drawn to German work of the same period may also like Royal Bayreuth porcelain.
Questions and answers
How can you tell if a porcelain box is from Paris?
Paris boxes are hard-paste porcelain decorated in and around Paris from the 1770s to the late 19th century, usually with hand-painted flowers and raised gilt. Marks are unreliable: at least half carry no mark, many carry a phony Sevres mark, and only a few show the mark of the decorating studio. Shape, painting and gilding count for more than the mark.
Are Limoges trinket box marks the same as Paris marks?
Not exactly. Many Paris decorators bought white ware from Limoges factories and painted it themselves, so a box can be Limoges porcelain decorated in Paris. Paris studios also borrowed other factories’ marks, such as the crowned N of Capodimonte, the interlocking L’s of Sevres and the crossed swords of Meissen. Porcelain de Paris used its own marks from about 1869.
What did Samson porcelain boxes copy?
Samson, founded in Paris in 1845, copied Meissen, Sevres, Chelsea and Derby porcelain, majolica, Chinese famille rose and Japanese Imari, and imitated St. Cloud and Chantilly soft paste with cream-colored earthenware. Samson marked its pieces, but some dealers later removed the marks to sell them as originals.
What kinds of hinged porcelain boxes were made in Paris?
Paris studios made hinged snuff boxes, etuis, patch boxes and table boxes. Shapes ran from ovals, hearts and cartouches to musical instruments, bellows, kegs and shoes. Samson also produced figural boxes in the Chantilly manner, such as a man and woman in bed.
Who was Jacob Petit?
Jacob Petit was one of the best-known Paris porcelain decorators. A trained painter, he opened his company on the Rue de Bondy in 1834, later built a factory in Fontainebleau for ornamental wares and sold the business in 1862. A box signed “Petit (JP)” is rare and expensive.