Owing to a local lack of the essential ingredient, kaolin, needed to make true porcelain, the French soon developed a similar, more delicate alternative. This soft-paste porcelain, similar to glass in its composition, was much more fragile in comparison to the Meissen hard-paste version; it was less malleable and prone to warp during molding, with a surface which is more easily scratched. Non the less, these glass like properties are precisely what gives the soft-paste porcelain its desirable qualities; the pure milky whiteness of the body, luminous ground colours and the richness and intricacy of the gilding made Sevres wares the most desirable and expensive porcelain in Europe in the second half of the 18th century.

The beginnings of Sèvres porcelain go back to 1740 when two workers from Chantilly manufactory claimed to know the secret of making soft-paste porcelain and succeeded in obtaining support from a group of people close to the court of Louis XV. In 1745 the manufactory was granted the exclusive royal privilege in France to make products in the manner of Meissen porcelain, that is painted with human figures, using unlimited palette of colours and gilding. During the early years of mostly experimental production, the factory, originally located in the castle of Vincennes on the eastern outskirts of Paris, was unprofitable and in 1751 the company was reorganized with the King purchasing one quarter of the shares. In August 1753 the manufactory officialy became the “Manufacture du roi “ and was permitted to mark its wares with the royal cipher of interlaced Ls. This decision was heavily influenced by his mistress, Madame de Pompadour, who became the manufactory's principal patron and customer. In 1756 the production was moved to a site in Sèvres, adjacent to her property of Bellevue, conveniently sited on the road between Paris an Versailles. In November 1759 Louis XV purchased all the shares of the manufactory and from then on until the Revolution the factory remained the property of the French Kings.

During the Revolutionary period production was reduced and the work was of an uneven quality. Under the reign of Napoleon it regained its former status and Sèvres wares were again sent through Europe. The character of the poducts, however, changed greatly. In 1804 the expensive soft paste was abandoned altogether and only hard-paste porcelain was produced from then on. An entirely new range of ground colours were introduced (the earlier ones could not be achieved on hard paste) and the gildong was flat and applied in a much thinner layer.