The Limoges box began as an 18th-century luxury for carrying snuff and grew, over two and a half centuries, into one of the most collected small gifts in the world.
A city built on white clay
Porcelain needs kaolin, a pure white clay that Europe struggled to find for decades. In 1768, deposits were identified at Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche, just south of Limoges. By 1771 hard-paste porcelain was being made in Limoges itself, encouraged by Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, the region’s royal administrator. The factory came under the patronage of the Comte d’Artois, brother of Louis XVI, and in 1784 the king bought it outright.
The age of snuff
In the 1700s, taking snuff was fashionable among the French aristocracy, and a small, beautiful box to carry it in was part of a well-dressed person’s attire. Porcelain snuffboxes were made at several French factories, including Chantilly, Saint-Cloud, Mennecy and the royal works at Vincennes, later Sèvres. Small boxes also held needles, thimbles, powder, beauty patches, perfumed pastilles or a keepsake such as a lock of hair.
When snuff fell out of fashion after the French Revolution, demand for these boxes faded.
Limoges becomes the capital of porcelain
Through the 19th century, Limoges grew into France’s leading porcelain center. Firms that are still known today were founded in this period, among them Haviland in 1842, created to supply the American market, and Bernardaud in 1863. Dinnerware dominated, but the skills of molding, firing and fine hand painting kept developing in the city’s many workshops.
The modern revival
In the 20th century, small hinged boxes found a new purpose as pillboxes and trinket boxes, and Limoges workshops took up the form again. In the decades after the Second World War, and especially from the 1970s on, designers and importers began commissioning playful figural boxes: animals, food, buildings, holiday scenes, often with a tiny porcelain surprise hidden inside. Collectors, particularly in the United States, embraced them as gifts and keepsakes.
How a box is made today
- A model is sculpted and a mold is made from it.
- Liquid porcelain is cast in the mold, dried, trimmed and fired.
- The piece is glazed and fired again at around 1,400°C, which gives Limoges its hard, bright white finish.
- Artists paint the decoration by hand, often in several stages with a firing after each color.
- A brass hinge and clasp are fitted by hand so the lid closes cleanly.
Because every step is done by hand, no two boxes are exactly alike, which is a large part of their charm.