Pair Chinese ‘Madame de Pompadour’ dishes

The decor of these beautiful plates is generally attributed to ‘Madame de Pompadour’, the mistress of king Louis XV. The interior is decorated with a large peony surrounded by chrysanthemum and pomegranate flowers. The border is decorated with flowers surrounding a fish and eagle. These plates are produced for the European export, probably for France where Madame de Pompadour was a style icon in the same period.

Condition: Mint, one superficial millimeter chip 
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The influence of Madame de Pompadour (on porcelain)
By C.C. (Camille) Verkoulen

Madame de Pompadour (1721-1764) became the mistress of Louis XV in 1745. Although she was from ‘bourgeoise’ or middle class, the charms, intelligence and individual development of Madame de Pompadour made her to be the first women from middle class to enter the royal court. For the court this was a shock as never someone from middle class (or lower class, from their perspective) had been mistress to the king. Eventually she developed to be the undisputed mistress of Versailles and she became one of the world’s most powerful women of the 18th century.1 Her influence was mainly present in decorative arts, especially porcelain. Madame de Pompadour became a supporter of Sèvres porcelain and made it immensely popular. She had close relationships with the Sèvres factory and influenced the production. For instance, she made the work of her favorite painter François Boucher to be source for the decoration of the porcelain. Also she suggested for instance colors such as royal blue and intense pink, which was later on called ‘pink Pompadour’. Another example of her influence in arts is found in jewelry. The so-called marquise shape ring or brooch is said to be inspired by the shape of Madame de Pompadour’s lips and is named after her official title: Marquise de Pompadour.
Regarding the decoration of Chinese porcelain, the well-known scene of these plates is attributed to Madame de Pompadour. The decoration is produced on a wide variety of porcelain objects and is also found in multiple colors. The fishes found in the border of the plate would refer to her original name ‘Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson’ (or ‘Jeanne-Antoinette Fish’). The eagle would refer to King Louis XV. While some people say the porcelain would be produced by order of Madame de Pompadour, no pieces are found in her personal collection after her death. It seems therefore unlikely that such pieces are produced for her personal use. Furthermore, it is also said that a woman with this stature and power would never have told to make a reference to her middle class name by a fish. However, it is undoubted that this decoration should be specifically produced for export by a private European order and it is rather likely that the story and influence of Madame de Pompadour served as the inspiration. We call this type of decoration ‘Pompadour’ for hundreds of years. A more precise dating is possible because we know that she became famous around 1745 and died in 1764. Therefore, we can say that ‘Pompadour’ Chinese objects are quite early Qianlong pieces.



A portrait of Madame De Pompadour by her favorite painter François Boucher, 1756.

Source: C.P. Algrant, “Madame de Pompadour: Mistress of France”, 2002. 
R. Savill, “Everyday Rococo: Madame de Pompadour and Sevres porcelain”, 2021
S.D. Howard, “The choice of the private trader”, 1993.