Custom made Chinese porcelain dinner services.(Design notes)(de Gournays)(Company overview)

Chinese porcelain has long been valued by Westerners for its hard translucent white surface. Marco Polo, who claimed to have visited Kublai khan's court in the thirteenth century, was probably the first European to write about this porcelain. Three hundred years later a Jesuit missionary Father Matteo Ricci observed that porcelains were being shipped "to every part of Europe where they are highly prized by those who appreciate elegance at their banquets." In the eighteenth century it became fashionable for the English aristocracy to order custom-made designs, and by 1820 almost five thousand British families owned armorial or specially commissioned wares. Americans continued the fashion by ordering Chinese porcelain services decorated with crests and initials into the late nineteenth century. Today de Gournays product line Chine de Commande represents a revival of the trade in specially commissioned porcelain dinner services.

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The firm was established in Kent, England, by Claud Cecil Gournay, who worked in Paris and then studied economics at the University of Chicago. In 1986 de Gournay debuted with hand-painted wallpapers based on chinoiserie designs from British historic houses. Ten years later the firm celebrated its success by opening a showroom in the Chelsea section of London, and then shortly afterward launched Chine de Commande porcelain figures and dinner services.

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The de Gournay porcelain is manufactured, hand-painted, and enameled to client specifications in its studios in the Far East. The firm produces unique dinner services and spectacular display pieces. It also copies originals to complete an existing set, such as the armorial plate shown above at right that was commissioned by the descendants of a Russian prince. In addition it offers a wide range of patterns. Some replicate traditional styles, examples of which are the well-known tobacco leaf ...