19th Century French Barbotine Covered Asparagus Server with Matching Platter by Keller & Guerin

Price: $2,480

19th Century French Barbotine Covered Asparagus Server with Matching Platter by Keller & Guerin is another rare find, to be sure!  Surviving together for over a century, each still displays rich coloration thanks to the proprietary painting and glazing methods by the well-known French ceramic masters at Keller & Guerin.  Note the server bottom for the vegetables has holes to allow excess water to drain onto the platter by design, providing drip free serving.  The lid helps keep the vegetables warm while on the table waiting to be served.  Having the three piece design also makes cleanup a snap.  The artfully cast porcelain combined with the combination of green with eggplant highlights depicts the primary vegetable for which the service was designed.  Tres elegante!
Keller & Guerin was a French family pottery that made flow blue, mulberry, and polychrome faience pieces in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The history of the factory dates to 1728. In that year, Jacques Chambrette built his first factory in Luneville near the River Muse in the province of Lorraine. Chambrette began exporting his factory’s products to Italy, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Since business was so successful and to escape the high taxation imposed by the king on wares from the Lorraine area, Chambrette in 1758 opened a second factory in Saint-Clement where he could escape the high tax rate. After the Luneville factory went bankrupt, Sebastien Keller bought it in 1786 from the Chambrette family. Then, around 1832, the son of Sebastien Keller along with his brother-in-law, Guerin, became owners. For 137 years the Keller family owned the company.
Circa 1880s
Server measures 5H x 11W x 8D; Platter is 1.5H x 13W x 10D