Antique French Ormolu Pier Cabinet Sevres Plaques 19th Century

This stunning antique French, ormolu and Sèvres Porcelain-Inset Meuble d`Appui pier cabinet dates from circa 1880.

The demi lune white Carrara marble top has a pierced brass gallery above a central cupboard door inset with five large turquoise and floral Sevres porcelain plaques and flanked by canted stiles inset with six further small plaques, which opens to real a single shelf.

The cabinet is set on a serpentine base with scrolled apron and raised on stout cabriole legs with ormolu cast mounts and sabots.

Add this beautiful pier cabinet with its great provenance to any room in your home.

Provenance:

Corby Castle,Carlisle, England

Lord and Lady Ballyedmond

See photo

Condition:

In goodcondition. As an antique item, the pieces shows signs of use commensurate with age, these minor condition issues are mentioned for accuracy and, as seen in the accompanying photographs, it displays beautifully.

Dimensions in cm:

Height 98 cm x Width 63 cm x Depth 32 cm

Dimensions in inches:

Height 3 foot, 3 inches x Width 2 feet, 1 inch x Depth 1 foot, 1 inch

Corby Castle

One of Cumbria’s most historically important mansion houses, grade I-listed Corby Castle sits on a plateau, rising above the picturesque River Eden to the east of Carlisle. The Manor of Corby was granted to Hubert de Vallibus by Henry II and passed to Andrew de Harcia, Earl of Carlisle before being given to Richard Salkeld in 1336. The estate remained in the hands of the Salkeld family until it was sold in 1611 to Lord William Howard, the third son of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk. The house is built around a red sandstone peel tower, or fortified tower house, built in the 13th century; William Howard added a two-storied L-shaped house to the peel tower, and the house was once again modified in the early 19th century by descendant Henry Howard. Between 1812 and 1814, Scottish architect Peter Nicholson gave the castle a new rectangular plan and the harmonious neo-classical façade in the distinctive local red sandstone that graces the building today. Corby Castle remained in the Howard family until 1994, when Lord and Lady Ballyedmond, as new owners, began an inspired revival of Corby, giving new life to one of the great Cumbrian mansions.

Sevres Porcelain

traces its roots in France to early craftsmen who had small manufacturing operations in such places as Lille, Rouen. St. Cloud, and most notably Chantilly. It is from Chantilly that a cadre of workers migrated to the Chateau de Vincennes near Paris to form a larger porcelain manufactory in 1738.

French King Louis XV, perhaps inspired by his rumoured relationship with mistress Madame de Pompadour, took an intense interest in porcelain and moved the operation in 1756 to even larger quarters in the Paris suburb of Sevres. Sevres was also conveniently near the home of Madame de Pompadour and the King's own Palace at Versailles.

From the outset the king's clear aim was to produce Sevres Porcelain that surpassed the established Saxony works of Meissen and Dresden. Though the French lacked an ample supply of kaolin, a required ingredient for hard-paste porcelain (pate dure), their soft-paste porcelain (pate tendre) was fired at a lower temperature and was thus compatible with a wider variety of colours and glazes that in many cases were also richer and more vivid. Unglazed white Sevres Porcelain "biscuit" figurines were also a great success. However, soft-paste Sevres Porcelain was more easily broken. Therefore, early pieces of Sevres Porcelain that remain intact have become rare indeed.

The Sevres Porcelain manufactory always seemed to be in dire financial straits despite the incredibly fine works it produced. In fact, the king's insistence that only the finest items be created may have contributed to the difficulties. Only a limited number of European nobility could afford the e