DECORATIVE PLATE

Félix-Optat Millet, Sèvres, France, Painted by Émile Richard, 1889

Faïence, off-white body; impasto painting in brightly-coloured slip (barbotine) and enamel of a flowering branch of roses, violets, and a butterfly on a ground of molten gold leaf fragments (font or).

Diameter: 39.5 cm

Markings: O. Milet Sèvres in green under the glaze on base; Richard in black paint along the edge

UMP 10187

Originally a modeller and painter at the national porcelain factory in Sèvres, Félix-Opat Milet, established his own faïence workshop in Sèvres in 1866. He primarily focused on the use of various painting techniques, particularly excelling in his mastery of pâte-sur-pâte and barbotine painting; his specialities included “cloisonné enamel” on gold ground. Milet also worked with designers and painters from the Sèvres porcelain manufactory, including flower painter Émile Richard.

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