Cup and Saucer (tasse et soucoupe) (1700–1720): Art, History and Details

Cup and Saucer (tasse et soucoupe) (1700–1720) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Saint Cloud Porcelain Factory (French).

The work and its context

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

The cobalt blue and white decoration that borders the edges of the cup and saucer was one of the earliest types of decoration used at the Saint-Cloud porcelain factory. This type of cup and saucer pair may have been called a trembleuse (trembler) due to the raised ring around the well of the saucer that would have secured the cup in trembling hands.

Object facts

• Title: Cup and Saucer (tasse et soucoupe)
• Date: 1700–1720
• Creator attribution: Saint Cloud Porcelain Factory (French)
• Culture: France, Saint Cloud, 18th century
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: soft-paste porcelain with underglaze blue decoration
• Dimensions: Overall: 7.5 x 7.5 cm (2 15/16 x 2 15/16 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1972.189

A detail from the museum

The Saint-Cloud Porcelain Factory was the first successful European manufacturer of soft-paste porcelain, a slightly off-white product that attempted to emulate the prized hard-paste porcelain produced by China and Japan.

Collection credit

Bequest of Mrs. Everett R. Castle

Further reading listed by the museum

• Dawson, Aileen. A Catalogue of French Porcelain in the British Museum. London: British Museum Press, 1994.
• Rondot, Bertrand. Discovering the Secrets of Soft-Paste Porcelain at the Saint-Cloud Manufactory, Ca. 1690-1766. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999.

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.