A 19th-century French chromolithograph of six Sèvres porcelain plates, from Édouard Garnier's celebrated study of Sèvres soft-paste porcelain. Each plate shows a different decorative style of the 18th-century manufactory: a scalloped plate scattered with sprays of gold flowers, another painted in crimson with a pastoral landscape, a third ringed with cornflower garlands around a single rose, a fourth banded in deep royal blue around a ribbon-tied bouquet, and two with scrolling blue rims and loose bouquets in full color. The Sèvres interlaced L marks, with their date letters and painters' marks, are printed beside each plate. It is framed in gilt modern frame with a rope twist edge and a beaded inner border, and it is lovely in a dining room, a kitchen, or a breakfast room.
Chromolithography was the finest color printing process of the 19th century. Each color was drawn by hand onto its own limestone block, and the sheet was pressed against every stone in turn, sometimes a dozen or more, with each impression aligned precisely over the last. Here the gold was printed in metallic ink so it catches the light as gilding would.
- Origin: France
- Age: Late 19th century (Circa 1880)
- Medium: Chromolithograph with metallic gold on paper
- Details: Six Sèvres plates in varied decoration, printed Sèvres marks; gilt frame with rope twist and beaded edge, glazed
- Dimensions: 13.5 by 18.5
- Condition: Good antique condition with light toning to the paper consistent with age
