Our Lady Of Perpetual Sorrow Pendant by Marcel Chaufriasse, Very Rare, 3x2x0.4 cm, Gold Plated Silver Frame, Beautiful Condition

Our Lady Of Perpetual Sorrow Pendant by Marcel Chaufriasse, Pate-Sur-Pate Pendant, 3x2x0.4 cm, Gold Plated Silver Frame, Beautiful Condition

This stunning pendant in beautiful deep blue with translucent porcelain slip painted on it by the famous artist Marcel Chaufriasse, acknowledged to be one of the very finest exponents of this type of pate sure pate artistry. It is extremely rare to find a miniature by Chauffriasse, I have never seen another.

It is quite simply breath taking. The skill and artistry required to produce a work of this quality are almost beyond words and definitely beyond photography. To really appreciate this you have to see it, hold it, feel it. Magnificent. Hauntingly beautiful.

Chaufriasse has created a masterpiece in porcelain. The plaque has then been set into a deep, beautifully gilded gold plated silver frame.

It is easy to see why work by Chauffriasse commands such high prices at auctions such as Christies and Bonhams in London. In 2003 a plaque by Marcel Chaufriasse sold at Christies in London for $5019.

This wonderful pendant measures 3 x 2x 0.4 centimetres not including the bale.

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 by applying successive layers of white slip (liquid clay) with a brush. The effect is somewhat similar to other types of relief decoration such as Jasperware, but as a mould is not normally used, the artist is able to achieve translucency.

To understand pâte-sur-pâte fully, we need to go back to France in the 1850s, and an accident that occurred at the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres. They were trying to reproduce a decorative technique from a Chinese vase, but misinterpreting the vase, the experiment took them along an altogether different path from the Chinese potter. Be it luck or fate they perfected what became universally known as pâte-sur-pâte.

The operation involves painting a thin wash of slip onto a coloured but unfired piece of porcelain. Subsequent layers, sometimes in different colours, are added when the earlier layers are dry, gradually, sometimes over weeks or months, building up a design in varying thicknesses and intensities. To do this in large format, as most are, is difficult enough but to do it in miniature, with this level of detail is sublime.

The technique was developed at Sevres c1850-75 by Marc-Louis Solon. At the outset of The Franco-Prussian war Solon fled France and joined the Minton Factory in England and continued his work there.

Limoges porcelain is rightly famous throughout the world for the quality of its porcelain and the exquisite nature of the enamel work produced there over many hundreds of years.