Manufacture Dihl Et Guérhard, Pair Of Coolers In White, Blue And Gold Porcelain.

Manufacture Dihl et Guérhard, Pair of coolers in white, blue and gold porcelain. Mark in red ink Manufacture Dihl and Guérhard Empire Period. Pair of porcelain coolers composed of three parts and decorated with friezes and golden fillets which frame blue bands. In 1781, the company deed which gave birth to the Dihl and Guérhard porcelain factory was signed between Christophe Dihl and the Guérhard couple, Antoine and Louise-Marie-Madeleine. Opened under the patronage of the Duke of Angoulême, nephew of King Louis Created under the Ancien Régime, this factory went through the Revolution, the Consultat, the Empire before dying out under the Restoration in 1828. Innovative, thanks to the technical ingenuity of Dihl and the commercial foresight of the Guerhard couple, it knew success from its creation and employed twelve sculptors as well as thirty painters in 1785. Throughout the neoclassical period, it established itself as the main competitor of the Sèvres factory with the use of a wide palette of colors for enamels, the exquisite finesse of its biscuits and its elaborate ornamentations. The factory is distinguished by the wide variety of pieces that it was authorized to produce thanks to royal protection: tableware, clocks, bisque groups, paintings on porcelain... These paintings required technical virtuosity brought to its peak by Dihl who earned him a reward at the Exhibition of Industrial Products in the year V (1797-1798). He married Madame Guérhard the same year, then a widow. The Revolution does not seem to have caused the manufacture to suffer, which had already achieved an international reputation, and the imperial period marked the peak of the manufacture, which enjoyed resounding success in 1806 at the Exhibition of Industrial Products and at the Salon. By judiciously choosing the best specialists for each position, they ensure production of exceptional quality and employ up to more than two hundred workers. However, the economic crisis caused by the Napoleonic wars combined with the continental blockade put in place by the adversaries pushed the manufacture on a long downward slope: the Dihls sold a lot abroad, in Spain, England and Russia in particular. Despite the courageous struggle of the aging spouses, the dissolution of the company was pronounced by the Court in 1828, two years before the death of Dihl in 1830, followed by his wife in 1831. All the assets of the factory were dispersed during auctions, including two dedicated to the most beautiful pieces.