Pair of 18th Century Luneville Recumbent Lions
£5,850
A wonderful pair of large scale faience lions from the Luneville manafactury, each lion couchant gardant,
whimsically painted in shades of black, grey and violets, with black-lined yellow manes,
each face with cobalt blue eyes, and showing teeth and tongue picked out in reds,
the ears laid back and pierced; the tail wrapped about the hindquarters, and resting on a rectangular sponged grassy plinth, boldly signed LUNEVILLE between the front paws
For similar lions of this type, see H. Morley-Fletcher and R. McIlroy, European Pottery, p. 181.
The first earthenware Lunéville factory was established by Jacques Chambrette in 1728.
They became best known for biscuit figures and large faience dogs and lions.
In 1749 thanks to high quality of its production, the factory was named Manufacture Royale de Fayence
by former king of Poland and duke of Larraine Stanislaw I Leszczynski.
Chambrette created a new type of earthenware called “terre de Lorraine”,
enabling the Lunéville factory to compete successfully with English and German ceramic centers.
Lunéville production was exported to many European countries.
Jacques Chambrette established the second factory in 1758 in Saint-Clément.
The factory continued with skilled workers and production throughout the 19th century.
Production stopped in 1981.
