Saucer (one of two) (part of a traveling tea service)

Art Historical Context

This delicate saucer, one of a pair from a traveling tea service crafted by the esteemed Paris porcelain firm Dihl et Guérhard around 8, exemplifies the pinnacle of late 18th-century French ceramics. Produced just before the French Revolution, reflects the opulent tastes of the ancien régime elite, who favored portable tea sets for social rituals on the go. Hard-paste porcelain—the medium here—was a technical triumph, made from kaolin clay and fired at high temperatures for exceptional durability, translucency, and whiteness, rivaling the finest German and Sèvres wares. Dihl et Guérhard, active in Paris from the 1770s, specialized in such refined objects, often adorned with gilding and neoclassical motifs suited to Louis XVI-era elegance. This compact saucer (just 1¼ × 5⅛ inches) would have paired with matching cups and trays, enabling aristocrats to savor tea amid travel or garden parties. Acquired by The Metropolitan Museum of Art via the Rogers Fund in 1921, it now invites us to ponder the fragility of pre-Revolutionary splendor—elegant vessels born in a time of brewing upheaval.