Chinese couple

Country: France

Manufactory: Samson

Date of establishment: beginning of the 20th century

Size (cm): 24*36

Porcelain Story

Sometimes such works are called copies (replicas, repetitions), sometimes a little more crudely - fakes. A lot here, of course, depends on the quality of work. Indeed, even copies of the products of some old European manufactories used to be superior in quality to the originals, or were so indistinguishable from them that this led to confusion of the most sophisticated experts and collectors.

By the way, it is well known that almost every of the reputable porcelain factories began the production of their first products from a banal copy of samples created by that time (mostly Chinese), and this was considered quite normal and familiar. But when they began to copy their own artistic developments, then, of course, it was immediately called a "rough" fake. Although, I repeat, some well-known copies were noticeably superior in quality to the originals.

So, already in the first half of the 19th century, a single copying seemed insufficient to some masters, and in 1845, Edme Samson created a large manufactory near Paris, which began to specialize in copying the most popular products of Meissen and Sevres. The forms purchased from the former managers of well-known factories and the exceptionally high quality of the manufactured products soon led to the fact that in the modern sale of that time, and even more so after decades at auctions, both originals and copies that were very difficult to distinguish from them began to be sold at almost the same price.

The Samson brand prospered, continuing to purchase tens of thousands of original products from the most famous German, French, English, Russian, Chinese and Japanese craftsmen and producing hundreds of thousands of copies almost indistinguishable from them. The Samson manufactory successfully existed until 1969. Its products are highly valued both in Europe and North America. They are sold at the largest auctions and are in great demand among major collectors.