personal patronage of Madame de Pompadour. The covered vases of the model pot-pourri Pompadour were designed by Duplessis and made from 1752. The painter Jean-Jacques Bachelier directed the enamelling workshop from 1751, and the chemist Jean Hellot, author of several works on metallurgy and an Académicien, was put in charge of chemical operations, conducting systematic investigations of clays, glazes and enamel colours. After 1752, through a Royal Edict, Vincennes was handed a monopoly of polychrome decors, which reduced the scope of other manufactories to some degree. Transfer to Sèvres (1756) In 1756 the Vincennes porcelain factory shifted to new premises at Sèvres, west of Paris, until 1759, when, with the enterprise threatening to go bankrupt, the king bought it outright, initiating the career of world-famous Sèvres porcelain, which was a direct outgrowth of Vincennes. In 1757 Étienne Maurice Falconet was appointed director of the sculpture atelier, when Vincennes officially became a manufacture royale de porcelaine. The procedure of introducing datemarks, and painters' and gilders' marks, which has made a detailed understanding of individual styles of Sèvres possible, was initiated at Vincennes, in 1753. Porcelain flowers continued to provide the bulk of Vincennes sales: Mme de Pompadour, whose château de Bellevue was not far from the new site, made lavish purchases of them to decorate her rooms and d'Argenson's anecdote of her receiving Louis XV there in a conservatory furnished in winter with perfumed porcelain flowers among those from the hothouse, is a familiar one; the inventory after her death showed that she owned 46 decorative items decorated with porcelain flowers. See also Orientalism in early modern France Notes Further reading Tamara Préaud, ed. Porcelaines de Vincennes: les origines de Sèvres, exhibition catalogue, Grand Palais, October 1977 — January 1978 Sassoon, Adrian, 1991. Catalogue of Vincennes and Sèvres Porcelain in the J. Paul Getty Museum (Malibu) 1991 External links Getty Museum: capsule history of Vincennes porcelain Metropolitan Museum: French porcelain in the eighteenth century Frick Collection. Pair of Duplessis vases, 1753 Clark Art Institute. River God, ca 1747 1740 establishments in France 1756 disestablishments in France Manufacturing companies established in 1740 Companies disestablished in 1756 Ceramics manufacturers of France Porcelain of France Val-de-Marne Companies based in Île-de-France Madame de Pompadour