Paris Porcelain - Pair Of Chinese Figurines

Pair of figurines representing Chinese with polychrome decoration in hard porcelain, marked in blue with crisscrossing arrows, points at the bottom. Trademark registered in 1887 by JM Clauss, 8 rue de la Pierre Levée in Paris (takeover of the old Locré factory)

Locré factory
Jean-Baptiste Locré de Roissy was born in Paris in 1726. On his baptismal certificate, his father Guillaume Locré is declared "tussolieren cloth of gold, silver, silk; son of Sieur Jean Locré, same vacation. ”Jean-Baptiste grew up in an environment passionate about producing exceptional pieces for Parisian society and the Royal Court. As a young man, Locré went abroad to study in the Free State of Saxony and settled in Leipzig where he learned innovative manufacturing know-how. He then returned to Paris, the city of his childhood and his inspiration, and laid the foundations there, rue de la Fontaine-au-Roy, for his own House in 1771. Jean-Baptiste Locré had the audacity to launch his manufacture without the official protection of a powerful kingdom, which makes his Manufacture the only free house in Paris. Maison Locré made Paris happy as early as the 18th century and its success was mentioned in a report by the Louis XV Department of Manufactures which declared in 1773 that the pieces of the “Manufacture de Locré” were distinguished by “the brilliance of the colors and de la dorure ”while, from 1777, Maison Locré was cited in L'Almanach Dauphin. In 1773, he joined forces with Laurent Russinger who became his second, mastering the technique of hard porcelain. Maison Locré was prized at the court of the King of France and Madame du Barry, favorite of King Louis XV, chose Maison Locré for her personal orders in 1777. In 1787, Locré was ruined because of the costs of manufacturing. He sold it to Russinger, who moved it to build new workshops. Ruined too, Russinger sold the factory to the Pouyat family, but he remained at the head of production. The year 1810 marked the death of Russinger and Locré, gradually causing the bankruptcy of the factory. In 1820, the ovens of the first workshops went out. In 1825, Jean Marx Clauss revived the factory in premises rented to Alexandre Dodé, son-in-law of Russinger. The Locré manufacture sees three generations of Clauss parading before being taken over by Achille Bloch.