This type of porcelain avidly sought by collectors today was actually produced by a number of factories in the Limoges region of France from the late 1700s until around 1930. Production did not cease in 1930, however. This arbitrary cutoff date simply denotes a change in the global economy when styles notably changed from very elaborate to more basic in design.
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At one point in the 1920s as many as 48 companies were producing wares marked Limoges, according to ceramics expert Mary Frank Gaston in The Collector's Encyclopedia of Limoges. These pieces weren't only marked denoting their origin, however. Many pieces had a number of different marks including factory marks, decorating marks, and some had signatures indicating the individual who decorated each piece.
It's important to understand, however, that the factories operating in the Limoges region produced elaborately molded white wares as their primary output. These undecorated pieces, also known as "blanks," were taken to decorating studios away from the factory like that of Pickard or exported without decoration. The blanks exported to American soil often ended up in the hands of eager china painting students, with this being a popular hobby for ladies during the late 1800s.
