The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Covered Sugar Bowl (Pot à sucre)

1745–48
manufacturer

Vincennes Porcelain Manufactory

(French, 1740–1756)
France, Vincennes
soft-paste porcelain with enamel decoration
Part 1: 8.1 x 16.2 cm (3 3/16 x 6 3/8 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1944.225
Location: 216A French and German

Did You Know?

Three separate shades of purple, one of the most expensive colors to produce on porcelain during this time, are used extensively in this object’s paintings.

Description

This covered bowl, likely intended for sugar, is one of the earliest surviving examples of Vincennes porcelain, a reputed French factory moved to Sèvres in 1756. The continuous landscape is painted on this object en pointillé, a method by which a painter forms images with tiny dots. This style may have been influenced by their German competitors at the Meissen Porcelain Factory.
  • formerly in the J. Pierpont Morgan collection
    1944
    (Arnold Seligmann, Rey & Co., New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1944–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Morgan, J. Pierpont, and Xavier Roger Marie Chavagnac. Catalogue des porcelaines françaises de m. J. Pierpont Morgan. Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1910. p. 49-50
    Alfassa, P., and Jacques Guérin. Porcelaine française du XVIIe au milieu du XIXe siècle. Paris: A. Lévy, 1931. p. 45, plate 35B
    Foote, Helen S. “Early French and German Porcelain Formerly in the J. Pierpont Morgan Collection.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 31, no. 9 (1944): 160–66. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25141159. p. 160-66
    Foote, Helen S. 1948. "Soft-Paste Porcelain of France." Art Quarterly 11, no. 4 (Autumn 1948): 335-347. p. 339, 345-46
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 139 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 139 archive.org
    Jedding, Hermann. Europäisches Porzellan. München: Keysersche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1971. p. III/278
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 182 archive.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art, and Jenifer Neils. The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Museum in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1982. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 60, fig. 63
    Hawley, Henry. "Vincennees-Sèvres Porcelain at the Cleveland Museum of Art." Antiques 85, no. 3 (March 1964): 322-325. p. 322-23
  • The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 20-August 22, 1982).
    Visions of Landscape: East and West. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982).
  • {{cite web|title=Covered Sugar Bowl (Pot à sucre)|url=false|author=Vincennes Porcelain Manufactory|year=1745–48|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1944.225