The Tiffany Reed & Cie retailer's mark inscribed on these striking coupe shape plates (and matching cups and saucers listed elsewhere) dates them precisely to the first few years of the 1850's--when the Gothic Revival was still underway in France and designers found inspiration in styles between the Dark Ages and the Renaissance. There being no surviving fine ceramic dinner ware of the period, ceramists imaginatively took period metal work and to some degree medieval manuscripts as models.

Here the influence of metalwork is most apparent, a bronze colored ground underlies a gilded field that creates a ring of pointed arches. In the gilt areas between the arches, white pansies with brilliant blue brushstroke foliage recall the colors of medieval enamels as well as floral detail from manuscripts. The pointed arches receive borders and elaborate flourishes at their tips executed in line work so fine that it resembles ornamentation engraved into a metal surface.

In art and literature the French Gothic Revival presented romantic visions of a distant past either as reflections of or alternatives to the turbulence in France at the time. In decorative works such as this we find a sense of a precious preserved beauty, a new object for the table or curio of an antiquarian connoisseur.

Charles Tiffany had been involved in the retail trade for over a decade--specializing in stationery, jewelry and fancy goods--when he opened a store on the Rue de Richelieu in Paris in partnership with Gideon Thayer Reed. In 1853, Tiffany bought out Reed as well as his American partners, unifying his enterprises under the name Tiffany & Co. In all likelihood, our porcelain was a special commission by the Paris retailer, though the producer of the porcelain is not recorded. It is even possible that manufacture and decoration was carried out by different firms.

Our friends with a firm sense of historic chronology will challenge the inclusion of these pieces in a selection of aesthetic period ceramics--products that date from decades later. We beg your indulgence, admitting that even our broad categories do not always allow perfect fits. Then again, considering factors such as the use of far removed design sources and a paramount importance given to exquisite beauty, perhaps these pieces share common ground after all.