Pâte-sur-pâte is a French term meaning “paste on paste”. It is a method of porcelain decoration in which a relief design is created on an unfired, unglazed body, usually with a coloured body, by applying successive layers of (usually) white porcelain slip (liquid clay) with a brush. Once the main shape is built up, it is carved away to give fine detail, before the piece is fired. The work is very painstaking and may take weeks of adding extra layers and allowing them to harden before the next is applied. Reference: Wikipedia. It was a popular technique during the Art Nouveau era and many ceramic manufacturers used this technique including makers such as Minton, Doulton and Meissen.
Below are some examples and price guides of Art Nouveau Pâte-sur-pâte items including a Mintons plaque and a Florence Barlow Doulton Lambeth oil lamp.
FLORENCE BARLOW FOR DOULTON LAMBETH An Earthenware Oil Lamp with Pâte-sur-Pâte Decoration, circa 1890 decorated with two different panels depicting hummingbirds, enclosed by incised foliage and pattern in green, blue and brown glazes; mounted with brass loop handles and oil lamp fitments, raised off an ornate brass base with three hoof feet, with glass funnel and frosted patterned globe
Sold for £ 1,530 inc. premium at Bonham’s in 2020
A MINTONS PATE-SUR-PATE PEACOCK-BLUE RECTANGULAR PLAQUE DATED 1908, SIGNED L.(OUIS) SOLON 1908 Possibly entitled ‘Les Amours en cerf-volant’, finely painted and hand-tooled in white slip with a maiden flying two kites to which she has tied putti 10 5/8 in. (27 cm.) high; 5 3/8 in. (13.6 cm.) wide
Sold for USD 12,500 at Christie’s in 2019
Sevres Art Nouveau pate-sur-pate oil lamp cream ground with pate-sur-pate decoration of putti amongst gilt-lined pink, grey and sea green swirling decoration, signed E. Drouet, supporting oil well, glass globe and chimney
Sold for $2,000 at Alex Cooper in 2019
Panel, pate-sur-pate, ‘Pan piping to daughters of Eve’, surrounded by blue frame border, modelled by Charles J. Noke, painted and gilt by William G. Hodkinson at Doulton in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England.
Reference: Museum of Applied Art and Sciences
A SÈVRES PÂTE-SUR-PÂTE PORCELAIN TAPERING TALL VASE, 1907 Vase d’Alençon, in the art nouveau style, decorated in relief by Lucien d’Eaubonne with a continuous classical frieze of polo players, signed L D EAUBONNE in a cartouche below the frieze, reserved against a grey/green band, above a geometric band of bridalled horse heads, the neck with a row of banners, impressed into the clay and encaustic decorated in mushroom-coloured clay on an off-white ground, incised C06 8, printed triangle mark enclosing S/1907, decoration mark also dated 1907
Sold for 10,000 GBP at Sotheby’s in 2020
Porcelain paperweight ‘La Mer’ with pâte sur pâte decoration, Sèvres, designed and decorated by T.M. Doat, Paris, ca. 1900-1901
Reference: © Victoria and Albert Museum
