Is your New Year’s resolution to go on a keto diet? Need something special to sip bone broth out of? QBO’s got you covered! The story of these Limoges porcelains begins the same as every old brand of porcelain, with someone discovering the necessary deposit of fine, white kaolin clay. In this case, it was the wife of French chemist Vilaris, in 1768, in St. Yrieixin near Limoges, France. Although ‘Limoges’ is often taken as a brand, it’s really a host of old brands under the regional title of where they were made. These elegant cups were produced for the American market by the Tressemanes & Vogt Porcelain Factory in Limoges. John Vogt (1815-1906) who came to France from Germany, ran the factory along with his sons Charles and Gustav Vogt, his nephew Frederic Dose and his grandson Charly Vogt. In the early 1880s when Emilien Tressemann partnered with Gustave Vogt, they named the company Tressemanes & Vogt or “T&V”, with offices in both Limoges and New York. When Tressemann retired in 1907, “T&V” was rebranded “Porcelaine Gustave Vogt”. In 1919 Martial Raynaud bought Vogt out, producing both a “T&V” and a “Raynaud” line of porcelains for a while. Only Raynaud is still made today.
You might wonder why these T&V Limoges teacups have 2 handles. It’s because they’re not for tea and are officially considered ‘bowls’. They’re from the time of Queen Victoria (or Bridgerton if you’re into costume dramas), when the upper classes hosted sumptuous dinners consisting of many courses served in a specific order, many of which came with dedicated china, cutlery, and serving pieces. These cups are Bullion, Consommé, or Cream Soup Bowls. Believe it or not, that is three ever so slightly different bowls, in three very slightly different sizes, but fortunately the infinitesimally small differentiation didn’t matter all that much even back then. Just know that two-handled ‘bowls’ are for a particular style of soup, occurring at a specific point in the menu.
If all this old-timey specialization sounds *cRaZy*, remember today’s Thanksgiving dinners, where you might still see a whole roast turkey on a Thanksgiving-themed platter with specific carving implements, served with traditional, expected sides such as cranberry sauce, hot rolls, sweet potatoes, etc. And of course pumpkin pie is always served last! So we still do the same specific-menu-order-and-specialized-dishes-thing, but only on rare occasions.
If you dined with her Majesty, you’d get double-handled ‘bullion bowls’ at the beginning of the meal. You might have a ‘bullion spoon’ too, but it was perfectly polite to pick up your bullion bowl and drink right from it! Really! Culinarily, bullion is nicely-flavored broth, while consommé is meat and vegetable broth cooked down to concentrate it, then clarified by having egg whites stirred through and strained out to remove sediment, resulting in a crystal clear soup. Cream soup is broth with cream. (Seems like bone broth would fit in here, too, no?) None of these soups are hearty because they’re meant to whet your appetite, not fill you up. Here is the menu served after Queen Victoria’s funeral in 1901: Game consommé topped with white truffles and garnished with game quenelles; Lamb cutlets topped with sautéed medallions of foie-gras and truffles; Roast quails stuffed with foie-gras; Roast potatoes in lightly spiced sauce; Celery baked with beef marrow under a cheese and breadcrumb crust; Crumbed and fried spinach quenelles; Beef Sirloin; Lobster medallions in the shell with mayonnaise sauce; Cold roast poulards (fat hens), Ham, Pressed Ox Tongue; Pheasant Terrine (pâté); Creamed rice molds with poached pineapple filling; Savarin cake steeped in kirsch syrup and topped with vanilla cream; Puff pastries filled with redcurrant jelly. Amazing! (But maybe not all that keto.) Happy New Year!
Tuesday Treasures was started by our staff member, Jeanne Lusignan. Each week she will be featuring items that have been found at our estate sales. If you would like to submit a treasure for Jeanne to feature in a future installment of “Tuesday’s Treasures”, please follow the button below and send us an email! Please attach a few photos of your treasure in a beautiful setting as well as any details you have about your item such as manufacturer, use, age, region of origin. If you don’t know about the piece, that’s okay! We still might be able to research it for you! Don’t forget to tell us what makes this item such a treasure to you!