Covered Tureen (Terrine du roi) (1756–57): Art, History and Details

Covered Tureen (Terrine du roi) (1756–57) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Sèvres Porcelain Factory (French, est. 1756).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This tureen’s striking green background, or fond vert, was a major advancement for the Sèvres Porcelain Factory, known for their innovation in and mastery of color. Traditionally the largest, most expensive item in an 18th-century French dinner service, this tureen was part of a porcelain dining set presented to King Frederick V of Denmark by French King Louis XV in 1758.

Object facts

• Title: Covered Tureen (Terrine du roi)
• Date: 1756–57
• Creator attribution: Sèvres Porcelain Factory (French, est. 1756)
• Culture: France, Sèvres
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: soft-paste porcelain with enamel and gilt decoration
• Dimensions: Overall: 24.2 cm (9 1/2 in.); Container: 15.9 x 22.6 x 16.5 cm (6 1/4 x 8 7/8 x 6 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1949.15

A detail from the museum

French King Louis XV was a great patron of the decorative arts; he acquired the Sèvres Porcelain Factory in 1759.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Foote, Helen. "Soft-Paste Porcelain in Apple-Green and in Turquoise." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 36, no. 8 (October 1949): 158-159.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.