This week, we take the Arts de la Table course https://www.aim.fr/en/page_art-de-la-table-in-the-heart-of-the-ritz-paris, out of the classroom, to the Manufacture de Sèvres https://www.sevresciteceramique.fr/en.html with BS1 students of AIM https://www.aim.fr/en/ .

The Manufacture’s experts guide us back in time, to 1740, the year of the opening of the prestigious porcelain manufacture. Under the influence of Madame de Pompadour, the manufacture became the official supplier of porcelain of the King.

A few decades later, in 1770, kaolin mines were discovered near Limoges, enabling the French to rival competitors in Asia and Germany, and finally master the art of porcelain making. Nowadays, around 1000 pieces are produced yearly, and 25% are destined to the French State (Elysée, Diplomatic Corps).

A unique living laboratory, it benefits from the excellence and expertise of its 120 on-site ceramists mastering some thirty specialized trades, as well as from the excellence of its materials (pastes, colours, enamels, etc.) produced in situ according to ancestral techniques.*** (Source https://www.sevresciteceramique.fr/en/manufactory/an-exceptional-manufactory.html)

At once a manufactory of transmission, safeguarding its ancestral skills and expertise while widely disseminating knowledge and understanding of the ceramic arts, and a creative laboratory of the finest quality, having proven its capacity for porcelain innovation for nearly three centuries, Sèvres is a one-of-a-kind public institution that beautifully balances tradition and modernity. *** (Source https://www.sevresciteceramique.fr/en/manufactory/an-exceptional-manufactory.html)

The students had the opportunity to discover two of the thirty specialized trades :

Tournassage : an operation that consist in thinning the walls, feet and edges of a porcelain

Beautiful works of art were on display along the way, including two beautiful vases painted with the Manufacture’s signature Celestial Blue, and which were presented at the Paris Universal Exposition in 1900.

We then headed off to the second workshop, the fileur doreur’s atelier (gilding spinner), which is one of the last of the 27 processes that any porcelain goes through at the Manufacture.

Pure 20 carat gold is the main ingredient used, and every single piece is hand decorated. The same technique has been transmitted by art technicians for over 300 years.