Scent bottle
ca. 1756
Medium
Soft-paste porcelain
Dimensions
Height (with stoppers): 4 3/16 in. (10.6 cm)
Classification
Ceramics-Porcelain
Culture
British, Chelsea
Department
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Irwin Untermyer, 1971
Accession Number
1971.75.11a–c
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate scent bottle, crafted by the renowned Chelsea Porcelain Manuf around 1756, exemplifies golden age of British porcelain production. Founded in the 1740s, Chelsea one of England's pioneering factories, producing luxurious soft-paste porcelain—a glassy, white-bodied material that mimicked the coveted Chinese and Meissen wares before the secret of true hard-paste porcelain was unlocked. These small vessels (just over 4 inches tall with stoppers) were status symbols for the elite, designed to hold precious perfumes amid the opulent Rococo tastes of mid-18th-century Britain. Adorned w...
About the Artist
Chelsea Porcelain Manufactory · 1744–1784
**Chelsea Porcelain Manufactory** The Chelsea Porcelain Manufactory, Britain's pioneering porcelain enterprise, was founded around 1743 in Chelsea, London, by two Huguenot silversmiths: Nicholas Sprimont from Liège and Charles Gouyn. Sprimont, trained in Paris as a goldsmith before immigrating to England, brought his expertise in luxury metalwork to the venture, while Gouyn handled early sales th...