Tea And Coffee Set In Grisaille On Pink Ground, Attributed To Louise Cretté In Brussels

Beautiful tea and coffee service complete with natural landscapes in grisaille on an old rose background. Beautiful gold highlights on white background. High quality and fine condition. Attributed to the workshop of Louis Cretté in Brussels.

Size: H coffee pot 27cm - diameter bowl 20cm - H cup 6cm

Louis Cretté in Brussels, 1788-1813.

Lit: Louis Cretté began his career as a painter on porcelain in 1772, at the Bourg-la-Reine factory in the Paris region. He would also work at the prestigious manufactures of the Comte d'Artois and the Duc d'Angoulême run by Dihl. It was here that he met his future companions, Claude Bommer the turner and Jacques Müller the enfourneur. The 3 friends worked together to set up factories in Lille and Valenciennes, and were called to Brussels to help create the Montplaisir factory in 1786 and the Etterbeek factory in 1787. With Cretté and Bommer as directors, they were already close to their dream of owning a factory! But in a twist of fate, they were both rejected from the project by the financial backers. This was followed by a 10-year lawsuit for Cretté, who during this interlude, unable to manufacture, decorated! Courageously, he moved to rue d'Arenberg and bought his whites in Paris (from Locré, among others). In 1799, with the funds from his legal victory, he set up his own factory in Sablon, Rue de l'Etoile (now Rue Ernest Allard). For production, he joined forces with Mortelèque, trained in Tournai. They mainly created beautiful dinner services, with painting playing a predominant role. The style is resolutely Louis XVI and neoclassical. Landscapes, flowers, animals and rural scenes are executed with great finesse. In 1803, he produced an exceptional service 'aux oiseaux de Buffon', which he wished to sell to a prestigious client, Napoleon Bonaparte, 1st Consul of France (the sale never took place and the service was dispersed, part of which is now in the Musée de la Ville de Bruxelles on the Grand-Place). On the death of Louis Cretté in 1813, Mortelèque moved to Ixelles, where he worked for some time (with Faber, among others).