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Creil, faience plate depicting Napoleon as Emperor of the French c.1810
White and grey fiancé plate with transfer image 3/4 bust of Napoleon in his coronation robes.
Description
The central engraving shows Napoléon I in his coronation robes, wearing the laurel wreath, ermine-lined imperial mantle and the grand collar of the Légion d’honneur. It is therefore not simply a generic portrait of Napoleon but an explicitly imperial state portrait — “Napoléon en costume de sacre.”
History & Context
The ceramic body itself was made at Creil. The manufacture had been established in 1797 as a producer of fine English-style earthenwares. Creil’s own historical account records the remarkable growth of the factory under Jacques Bagnall, employing approximately 800 workers by 1811. The later name “Creil et Montereau” should not be used for this early plate: the two factories were not merged under that name until much later.
The printed decoration was the work of the Paris firm Stone, Coquerel & Legros d’Anizy. Legros d’Anizy had already been involved with ceramic printing at Sèvres. He joined John Hurford Stone and Athanase Coquerel, and in 1808 they obtained a ten-year patent for a ceramic transfer-printing process capable of reproducing very fine engraved detail. The Musée Gallé-Juillet documentation likewise dates Creil pieces bearing their mark to 1808–1818.