Dihl And Guerhard, Consulate And Empire Periods—chocolate Cup And Saucer—to

Hard-paste porcelain with a metallic glaze and gilded accents
Dimensions: Saucer diameter 18 ; Cup height 8,5 (cm.)
Paris, circa 1800

Litron-shaped cup with a console handle and a hollow saucer. Rich neoclassical ornamentation featuring gilded friezes on a brown tortoiseshell background.

Dihl and GuérhardIn 1781, Christophe Dihl and the Guérhard couple established, under the patronage of the Duke of Angoulême—who was only 6 years old at the time—a hard-paste porcelain manufactory on Rue de Bondi in Paris. Dihl contributed his creative genius as a sculptor and a large number of molds, while the Guérhards provided the funding. By 1785, the factory already employed 12 sculptors and 30 painters, and, most importantly, had a full order book. In 1787, a court ruling granted the factory its independence; according to contemporary accounts, it was on par with the Sèvres factory, and no one wanted to see it disappear! Madame Guérhard even very diplomatically sent a kiln operator to Sèvres to modify the new kiln there. In 1789, the factory moved to Rue du Temple. That year, Gouverneur Morris, the U.S. representative in Paris, purchased porcelain for George Washington. By 1793, the factory employed 500 workers. Mr. Guérhard died. In 1797, Mrs. Guérhard and Mr. Dihl were married. With high-quality clay, a state-of-the-art kiln, and colors, shapes, sculptures (by Lemire), and paintings (by Le Guay) of the utmost beauty, the factory remained a benchmark in the industry.

The mark “M[anufactu]re de Mgr/ le duc d’Angoulême/ à Paris” was used until the French Revolution. Afterward, the names Dihl and/or Guérhard were used. The Imperial era marked the factory’s heyday. However, after triumphing at the 1806 Exhibition of French Industrial Products, the manufactory experienced a decline in activity beginning in 1810, even though Empress Joséphine commissioned a prestigious service from it in 1811–1813. The company was dissolved in 1828, and Dihl died in 1830.

Condition report: minor signs of wear, a very small restoration at the base of the handle (virtually invisible), and another on the saucer.