Saint-Cloud Manufactory

Believed to be the first major French factory opened by Pierre Chicaneau, probably in 1677, the year before his death. The business was continued by his widow Barbe Coudray and her second husband Henri-Charles Trou. The porcelain produced by the factory is of a soft, translucent paste that makes the ‘Saint-cloud white’ equal to the ‘China white’, which had been its inspirational model. Until 1740, an oriental imitation style predominated, followed by the first production with polychrome decoration. The factory was closed in 1766.