Paris Porcelain, Chandelier with Flowers, France circa 1890

Charming painted porcelain chandelier with a blue background, in the shape of a basin with a flared and openwork border decorated with foliage on a platinum background alternating with golden rosettes. The body is decorated with a rotating decoration of flowering branches and butterflies, framing three medallions with the letter M decorated with daisies, and ends with a seed extended with golden leaves. It is suspended by six gilded bronze chains connected to a ceiling light ending in a pine cone.

Since the discovery of kaolin, needed material for the making of porcelain, porcelain factories also called porcelain manufactures are on the increase in all France and naturally in Paris. Most of those manufactures worked in the 18th century under the protection of a member of the Royal family, such the comte de Provence, future Louis XVIII, who protected the Clignancourt manufacture. But during the 18th and 19th century, numerous pieces did bear no making mark. It was then almost impossible to attribute them to any particular Parisian factory, hence the expression “Paris porcelain” or “Vieux Paris” including all those various productions.