Boston Museum of Fine Arts – Derby, Sceaux, Loosdrecht and New Hall porcelain with Duvivier decoration

Boston Museum of Fine Arts – Derby, Sceaux, Loosdrecht and New Hall porcelain with Duvivier decoration

A Chelsea-Derby soft-paste porcelain plate, c. 1770, painted in the center by Fidelle Duvivier in rose camaïeu with a cherub holding a bird, and seated amidst musical instruments and a cage on clouds, the scalloped rim with a lightly molded edge delineated with gilt lines and scrolls pendent with a rose and pink meandering ribbon interrupted with gilt-heightened turquoise grapevines and foliate clusters extending into the lightly fluted cavetto. Conjoined anchor and D mark in gold. Diameter: 9 in. (22.8 cm.) (Inv. RES 55.31, reserve collection)

Duvivier’s decoration on Loosdrecht Sherds

Between 1774 and 1784 porcelain was made at the Dutch manufactory founded by Rev. Joannes de Mol (1726–1782) and located in Oud-Loosdrecht, 30 km south of Amsterdam, close to the Vecht River. In the years 2000-2005 the Historical Society of Loosdrecht conducted excavation work at the site of the manufactory in order to bring its history “above water” for the first time. In the course of their work, the archaeologists discovered a vast amount of ceramic evidence – both in the ground as well as in the water nearby.

Two Sceaux faience plates (F. Duvivier)

Two Sceaux faience plates (F. Duvivier)

The above plates (numbers 36, 38 in my book) were published in 1903 in a book by M. L. Solon, A history and description of the old French faïence, with an account of the revival of faïence painting in France (London: Cassell & Co., Ltd.), facing p. 124. At the time the two plates were attributed to the factory of J. Gaspard Robert of Marseille, but in the meantime both have been re-attributed to Sceaux.

Birds of Fantasy by Gerverot

Birds of Fantasy by Gerverot

Here are some examples of bird painting by Louis Victor Gerverot (1747-1829), another French porcelain painter, who most likely knew Fidelle Duvivier while both were in the Netherlands, and who later collaborated with Duvivier in Staffordshire.