Pair Yellow and Gold Flared Cache Pots, about 1815
Locré Russinger Pouyat (active 1772–1824), Paris
Porcelain, painted and gilded
7 7/8 in. high, 7 3/4 in. diameter at top
Marked (in underglaze blue, on the bottom of each saucer): [factory mark of two crossed torches]
These elegant cache pots bear the factory mark of Locré Russinger Pouyat of Paris. Located at 39, rue Fontaine-au-Roi in Paris, the firm was in business from 1772 through 1824 under various owners, and was called Locré after its founder, who ran the business for its first fourteen years.
Jean-Baptiste Locré de Roissy set up his factory for “German porcelain” at Courtille in Paris in July 1773, and shortly thereafter registered his mark of two crossed torches, which appears on the bottom of the saucers of both of these cache pots. Laurent Russinger, a modeller, joined Locré as a manager and in 1787 purchased the factory from him. Once in charge, Russinger partnered with Pouyat, a wholesale porcelain merchant from Limoges, to whom he then surrendered the firm in December 1808. Pouyat’s sons managed the firm until 1810, when they became the owners. They sold the firm in 1823–24. (For a more in-depth discussion of the history of the factory at Courtille, known as Locré, see Régine de Plinval de Guillebon, Porcelain of Paris 1770–1850 [Walker and Company, New York, 1972], pp. 264–74).