Pair of Porcelain Urn Form Fruit Coolers with Covers and Liners

The Parisian firm of Stône, Coquerel, and Legros d’Anisy is distinguished for the important role that it played in the introduction of transfer-printed decoration on fine china in France. Although the process had been known and used in Great Britain since the eighteenth century, it was, according to Régine de Plinval de Guillebon in her book, Porcelain of Paris 1770–1850 (New York: Walker and Company, 1972), not until 1802 that Potter, Blancheron, Constant, Neppel, Cadet de Vaux & Denuelle took out a patent in France for transfer-printing on earthenware, and it was only on February 26, 1808, that John Hurford Stône, his brother-in-law, Athanase Marie Martin Coquerel, and Francois Antoine Legros d’Anisy not only took out a patent for transfer-printing on china, but also established a Stône, Coquerel, and d’Anisy partnership for the manufacture of transfer-printed ceramics. Their address from 1808 until 1818 was at 9, rue de Cadran, Paris.

Prior to this, Stône and Coquerel had been partners at a creamware factory in Creil, France, and Legros d’Anisy had worked at the Sèvres factory, where he had apparently developed the transfer-printing technique for which his own firm became well known. “The process,” notes de Guillebon, was “based upon removing from the engraving a ‘pull’ made on a specially coated filter-paper, which was pressed onto the object to be decorated; this object itself was covered with a film. Firing took place in a muffle-kiln” (p. 262). Stone “was responsible for management and general supervision, … Coquerel was just a signatory [and], as for Legros d’Anisy, the technician, his tasks were to select suitable subjects for reproduction, to fix prices, and to choose and manage the painters and engravers.”

De Guillebon (p. 264) cites the Almanach du Commerce de la Ville de Paris of 1808, which listed the various subjects that were used by the firm of Stône, Coquerel, and d’Anisy, including the fables of La Fontaine, portraits of great men both ancient and modern, picturesque views, castles and country houses in different lands, highlights from French and Roman history, monuments of Paris and its environs, engraved stones, and military service. The Almanach further noted that “all these decorations could be turned out in black or in colour, and this applies equally to any subjects that might be requested: monograms, armorial bearings, family portraits, etc.”

In contrast to the clumsy decorative effects often resulting from the transfer-printing process, the decorations of Stône, Coquerel, and d’Anisy were “remarkable for their delicacy and clarity” (de Guillebon, p. 264), which is confirmed not only by the splendid quality of the present pair of coolers, but also by the huge assortment of subjects used to decorate their wares. Complementing the transfer-printed scenes, these coolers are adorned with a variety of neo-classical borders–floral, foliate, and geometric–both transfer-printed and free drawn.