SOLD 18th Century Bisque Porcelain Figure of a Young Gardener

French Paris (Locre Factory) Hard-Paste Porcelain Figure of a Young Gardener, Late 18th Century. Moulded standing, with a pear in his right hand, and a watering can near his right side, his left hand holding a shovel resting on his leg. The tree in the background with foliage on short branches above the man's cockaded hat. On a rocky mounded cylindrical base, with sparse greenery.

Incised marks with crossed arrows, and V, for Locre. 

11 1/2" H. 

Circa 1775.

The factory at Rue Fontaine-au-Roy, La Cortille, Paris went through several iterations of ownership. These include the 14 years of its founder, Jean-Baptiste Locre de Roissy, 1773-1787. Locre himself had spent many years in Germany, where he learned the art of making and modelling porcelain in the German style. He married a woman from Leipzig, then returned with his family to set up a porcelain shop in Paris.

Later, Martin de Bussy joined as partner in 1777, as did Laurent Russinger, a former modeller at the Hoechst factory. In the early years of the 19th Century, under the Napoleonic Reign, Pouyat ran the factory.

In its many years of operations, Locre often made products considered as fine as Sevres, despite the many advantages of contacts, materials and publicity that Sevres enjoyed.

The figure is rare. Similar examples are illustrated in Dawson's French Porcelain catalogue, and in Rene de Plinval de Guillebon, (English edition), p. 260. 

Condition: Very good condition, with the following caveats: Some of the leaves with tiny chips. One tiny firing black spot to back of treen. 

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