Early 19th Century Paris Porcelain Urn

Note: Pierre Louis Dagoty’s porcelain was characterized by the use of vivid colours and the thick application of burnished gold leaf. He borrowed from the repertoire of Neoclassical ornament but his designs also included Egyptian and Chinoiseries motifs.

Dagoty’s elegant ceramics won him the patronage of Empress Joséphine. At the height of production, in 1807, he employed over a hundred workers, and exported his wares to Russia. After the fall of the First French Empire in 1814, manufacture continued under the Duchesse d’Angoulême, the only surviving child of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette.

Between 1816 and 1820, Dagoty worked in partnership with François Maurice Honoré. In 1817. Dagoty and Honoré received a commission from President James Monroe of the United States for a dinner service and matching dessert service.