This bowl’s ten-sided shape, blue glaze, and bird motifs indicate the influence of 17th-century Japanese ceramics. A superb example of early porcelain production in Europe, the bowl differs from its Japanese sources in that it is painted with delicate floral sprays upon a soft porcelain body rather than a hard, glassy porcelain. In 1753 the Vincennes Factory became France’s Royal Porcelain Manufactory and within three years moved to Sèvres.

Excerpt from

Kevin W. Tucker, DMA Label copy, 2004.