Some 110 working drawings from the Sevres Archive are reproduced here for the first time in color. They celebrate the high skill of the artists whose work often documented contemporary events in France. There are table services in the "Egyptian" and "Etruscan" taste as well as individual pieces that recall Napoleonic military campaigns. There are also exquisite Neoclassical decorations using motifs such as birds, butterflies, and insects that reflect the century's early fascination with the natural sciences. The repertoire of nineteenth-century eclecticism is evident in the output of Sevres from the revival of Gothic and renaissance motifs to the outburst of naturalism. Eleven essays by leading authorities assess this dynamic period.
This book is the catalogue for an exhibit at the Bard Graduate Center in New York city, which runs from mid-October 1997 to January 1998.
