A Chinoiserie set from the collection of Marie Antoinette

 credit: (C) RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Martine Beck-Coppola

This stunning matching set of Chinese porcelain pieces were once part of the vast collection of Marie Antoinette. The queen, like many of her contemporaries, had a fondness for 'Chinoiserie' and had numerous Chinese (as well as Japanese) ornamental pieces in her collection. Although many Chinoiserie-style items were made by European manufacturers who combined a Chinese aesthetic with a European rococo style, these particular pieces--a pair of decorative parrots, two small ewers, and a perfume fountain--originated in China and have been dated to the late 17th or early 18th century.