Bracquemond covered sauceboat with fixed tray butterfly and insect design

This piece is part of the Bracquemond service, highly renowned and presented at the 1867 Exposition Universelle in Paris. It has since been exhibited in many major museums, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Musée d’Orsay, the Petit Palais, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Tokyo National Museum of Western Art.

Made of fine faience by Creil & Montereau, from a model published by François-Eugène Rousseau, the service combines a hand-brushed blue flamed rim with motifs inspired by Hokusai’s Manga sketchbooks, etched by Félix Bracquemond.

About 260 designs were created, printed and applied to the faience before being hand-colored freely by workers. Each piece is therefore unique, the result of an innovative manufacturing process that continued from 1866 into the early 20th century.

Upon its presentation, the service enjoyed unprecedented success and remains emblematic of Japonisme in French decorative arts. All pieces bear the mark “ Creil / L&Cie / Montereau / Modèle / E. Rousseau / à / Paris” on the underside.

The selection of items presented here is not exhaustive: it is extremely rare to find two plates with the same combination of motifs. Please feel free to contact us if you wish to build a service or are looking for a specific design. As these are antique pieces, they show varying signs of age and use (scratches, firing marks, stains, craquelure, restorations…), which do not affect their quality or authenticity.