Limoges Boutique Chat

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by Mira Lash  

No one knows exactly when and who made the first porcelain Limoges snuffbox. The soft paste Faience snuffboxes began to be produced sometime around 1730. These antique snuffboxes can't either be identified by back stamp marks, for none were put on them. Nor were they signed or dated. There is no easy way to know if a antique Limoges snuff box is authentic beyond having a grasp of the history of the styles they made in that time and the Four big factories that made them, Chantilly(1725-1800), Saint Cloud(1677-1766), Mennecy(1734-73), and Vincennes(1740-56), which became Royal Sevres(1756-present). Sometimes a popular artist at the time would place his signature on the antique Limoges snuffbox. The discovery of Kaolin and the creation of hard-paste Limoges porcelain in 1768 brought many new companies into the scene who began creating Limoges porcelain boxes in competition with the big Limoges porcelain box companies. Identifying an 18th century Limoges snuffbox is just as difficult for they also did not mark their Limoges Boxes with back stamps and competitors were producing knockoff's of one another and stealing one another's porcelain formulas and enamel recipes. For back stamps were used it is still difficult to distinguish for many companies in competition would forge one another's Limoges Box back stamps. It is in the 19th century that the soft-paste porcelain ceased to exist and only genuine Limoges porcelain boxes were made of the special clay Kaolin come solely into play. But in the 18th century snuff became unpopular and the factories declined in snuff Limoges box making and made more other subjects with porcelain. It was at this time that the Limoges porcelain industry all centered in the actual area of Limoges and it's outlying areas.