ANNE HAWORTH BA (HONS) is an expert in the history and culture of China. From 1995-2002 she was resident in Shanghai, China, visited ancient kiln sites and lectured to expatriate groups. In Autumn 2002 she catalogued the collection of Chinese Porcelain at Kensington Palace. Anne is a lecturer at the V & A, and a guide for private tours of the State rooms and the Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace. She also lectures in British Painting for American students resident in London. From 1981-1995 Anne trained and became a senior ceramics specialist at Christie’s and Bonhams head offices. From 2002-2005 a committee member of the French Porcelain Society.
The small round print, La Chapellerie shown depicts the inside of a Parisian hat maker’s shop in the early-19th century and was recently acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum (fig. 1) This print is a rare survival, attesting to the production of a dinner service from which the finished wares have all but disappeared. Known as the Service des Arts Industriels (Service of the Industrial Arts), the dinner service was produced by the French porcelain factory, Sèvres, during the 1820s. Consisting of 180 pieces, the service represented 158 French technological crafts, from jewellery making to the processes used at the Sèvres factory itself. Painter Jean-Charles Develly both produced all the preparatory sketches and painted the wares by hand.
The history of the service is well known as a great deal of archival material survives at the Sèvres archives. It is likely to have been commissioned by Alexandre Brongniart, the then director of the Sèvres factory. Brongniart was interested in technology and chemistry and became a member of the jury for the Exposition des Produits de l’Industrie Française (Exhibition of French Industrial Products). The service was commissioned following the fifth Exposition, probably as a means of illustrating the Sèvres Company’s renewal as a beacon of the French luxury industries under his leadership – industries Brongniart had ample time to study as a juror for the Exposition