Tobacco jar — Pot à tabac, Sèvres porcelain factory, Sèvres, 1778
Record status
Individual type · partial
Period
1778
Tobacco jar — Pot à tabac, Sèvres porcelain factory, Sèvres, 1778 is an object recorded by Victoria and Albert Museum, dated 1778. The museum's brief description reads: Tobacco jar and cover, 'Pot à tabac', hard-paste porcelain, decorated with musical trophies painted in enamels and gilt, Sèvres porcelain factory, France, 1778..
Museum description: Tobacco jar and cover, 'Pot à tabac', hard-paste porcelain, decorated with musical trophies painted in enamels and gilded. The reserve on the front includes a plumed straw hat with blue and white ribbon and pink and purple feathers, a bagpipe, a clarinet, a rose branch and other foliage. The lid has similar decoration and a spherical gilded knop. The museum record gives material recorded as hard-paste porcelain; measurements Height 16.8 cm; Diameter 11 cm; place associated: Sèvres.
These details come from the holding museum's own record; how far this object represents a wider collectible type has not yet been independently verified.
Evidence at a glance
- Linked sources
- 1
- Photograph views
- 1
- Catalogue references
- 0
Counts describe this entry’s documentation, not authenticity, rarity or completeness. Photographs may show one specimen; check each caption and licence.
Historical context
In eighteenth-century Western Europe both men and women smoked tobacco in pipes and took it as snuff. Taking snuff was more popular and fashionable than smoking. Jars like this were for probably used for both tobacco and snuff. Some have loops at the back to hold a spoon of porcelain or precious metal. The discovery of the clay, kaolin, in France in 1768 enabled the French porcelain factories to produce hard-paste porcelain, closer in its material properties to that made in Germany, Austria and China. The use of hard-paste porcelain not only enabled the incorporation of sharper colours and designs, but also shaped the transition to the use of simpler forms in the porcelain bodies produced around 1770 and 1800. Hard-paste porcelain was less expensive to produce and prompted the development of a new range of enamel colours and gilding techniques. Gilding had previously been applied to soft-paste porcelain in the form of layers of crushed gold leaf, which were painted on before firing. The new methods involved a much more economical, chemically 'precipated' gold powder. It could be applied in much thinner layers and was more durable.
Physical characteristics
- Material
- hard-paste porcelain
- Dimensions
- Height 16.8 cm; Diameter 11 cm
Technical characteristics
- Technique
- hard-paste porcelain, painted in enamels and gilded
- Place recorded
- Sèvres
Design
- Inscriptions recorded
- Interlaced 'L's enclosing letters 'AA' and red enamel crown; a pair of semi-quavers
Identification
- Museum object name
- Tobacco jar
- Museum object number
- 970&A-1854
- Museum system number
- O98971
Catalogue references
No catalogue numbers recorded. Numbers are only published once transcribed from a verified edition of a standard catalogue — they are never inferred.
Research required
- Research required: confirm materials, dimensions, maker and wider type against the holding institution and a specialist reference.