dessert knife

Saint Cloud Manufactory, artist

active circa 1693–1766

dessert knife, circa 1710–1720

Where object was made: France

Material/technique: soft paste porcelain; silver; steel

Dimensions:
Object Height/Width (Height x Width): 24.13 x 2.2 cm at widest point
Object Height/Width (Height x Width): 9 1/2 x 0 7/8 in

Credit line: Gift of Pamela D. Kingsbury

Accession number: 2000.0155.i

Not on display

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Label texts

Exhibition Label:
"Circuits of Exchange: The Global Taste for Blue-and-White Ceramics," Mar-2009, Kris Ercums
When Chinese porcelain became widely popular in Europe in the mid-1600s, Europeans did not fully understand how porcelain was produced (it requires a high-fired additive known as kaolin). Theories proposed that the coveted material was made by burying a variety of materials including lobster shells and plaster in the ground for eighty years. However, continuous experiments at a manufactory in Saint-Cloud, a small town west of Paris, produced a distinctive paste. As the first major porcelain factory in France, Saint-Cloud began production of soft-paste porcelain in the early 1690s. New influences gradually increased availability, and eventual unable to compete Saint-Cloud closed in 1766.