A significant part of the French porcelain in the collection of the Armoury Chamber is connected with the Dagoty’s factory. Founded by Pierre Louis Dagoty and F. Honoré in 1785, the manufactory united the production of two factories and occupied second place in France after the Manufactory de Sèvres. The high quality of material and the level of ornamental and painting works of the “Dagoty’s” deserved credit of the royal family members, in particular – the patronage of Empress Josephine, wife of Napoleon, that allowed naming the mark as the “Manufactory of Empress” in 1804-1807s and be the supplier of the imperial court.

The collection of the “Dagoty’s” from the Armoury Chamber includes several series of decorative plates united by a common stylistic decision: almost all items have a terracotta border with a gilt drawing and painting in the centre is framed like a canvas. The plates range by the themes that can be conveniently classified into “National Costumes of Swiss”, “Horses and Sheep”, “Romantic Landscape”, “Fables” and “Mythological” series. We cannot judge the full content of a complex - the series have different quantity of items same as services they suffered separation and part of them was transferred to the Museum of Ceramics and “The Kuskovo Memorial Estate of the 18th century”.

Picturesque compositions in the plates’ centre feature not only expression and fine mode of execution but also have a certain educational function thus answering historical and ethical questions of that time. The painting in the series “Fables” is based on the plots from Jean de La Fontaine’s works which implies an exquisite taste and wide reading of the clients. The fantasy and mastery of the artists-ornamentalists from the Dagoty’s factory is worth mentioning: from 70 plates kept in the Armoury Chamber only three pairs have an identical pattern of the border, all others have a unique design.

The influence of the Dagoty’sworks on the development of the Russian porcelain is also worth noting. The famous “Gurievsky” (or “Russian”) service (1809–1816) produced at the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory borrows the colour range and ornamental decisions from the Dagoty’s plates, at the same time forms of its items remind of the framed objects from the “Olympic” service.

The items of little-known Paris firm Stone, Coquerel et Legros serve as a vivid example of advanced technologies in the production of porcelain objects. The co-founder of the firm was the inventor of the method of ceramic printing that presaged the decalcomania. Le Gros used his technique for the first time in 1803 at the Manufacture deSèvres, however, he continued to develop it at his own factory, founded in 180 7 together with manufacturers Stone and Coquerel. The ceramic printing allowed the firm to replicate the most popular items and as a result to speed up the production and reduce its price. The pieces of “Stone, Coquerel et Legros” firm became deprived of authenticity but remained skillfully executed and impressive thanks to the rich colour palette and elegant compositions.

The method of Legros did not gain widespread use either in France or abroad. Nevertheless, the inventor’s merits were recognized in the 1813 exhibition – he was bestowed a silver medal and honorary diploma for development engineering. His unusual for that time décor caused a number of imitations, particularly in Russia at the Yusupov’s Factory.

By the end of the 19th century, demand for cheap porcelain and the heightened need for its industrial production led to the spreading of the decalcomania technique – transfer picture. The simplified variant of printing allowed unifying the décor of all pieces of service, replicating fashionable images and ornaments in necessary quantities, which in its turn degraded the quality and general artistic level of objects.

Paris of the late 18th – early 19th centuries was a large centre of china production, famous for the wealth of porcelain manufactures (later Limoges became the one). Many of them did not produce the porcelain itself, they purchased material from other workshops and put their marks or signs on the painted objects. Not all marks and signs of such small enterprises were deciphered, nevertheless, these are artistic features and their style that allow attributing not marked items or items with undeciphered marks to the works of minor manufactories of Paris. The Moscow Kremlin Museums collection provides valuable insights into the quality of items of these enterprises. The Armoury Chamber acquired these exhibits through the purchasing commission of the museum in the last few years.