What came to be known as Sevres porcelain was founded in 1740 at the Royal Chateau of Vincennes in France. Its purpose was to manufacture porcelain of the highest quality.

The earliest pieces were known as Vincennes, and it was not until 1756 that the works came to be called Sevres, after the factory was moved to a purpose-built building in Sevres, a village ideally situated between Paris and Versailles.

From 1750 the factory was managed under royal administration, when it became the exclusive property of King Louis XV. From this time the factory was financed by two joint stock companies incorporated by Charles Adam and Elroy Brichard, and assisted by grants from the royal treasury.

In 1753, while still known as Vincennes, date lettering was instituted. Beginning that year, most pieces were inscribed underneath with a letter. The letter `a' denoted 1753, while `b' denoted 1754, and so on. When `z' was reached in 1777, the factory began doubling letters, so that `aa' denoted 1778, `b' 1779 and so on.

Also painted beneath virtually all Sevres pieces was the hallmark of interlaced L's for Louis XV.

True porcelain consists of two important ingredients: kaolin and petuntse. When these are moulded together and fired at very high temperatures, they produce true porcelain, or what is often termed as hard paste porcelain. The Chinese kept the formula a secret for many hundreds of years. Europeans did not discover the recipe until early in the eighteenth century, when the Meissen factory in Germany began successful production. However, kaolin was not discovered in France until 1768, so up until that time petunse and ground or powdered bone or glass were moulded together to produce what is known as soft paste porcelain, which is fired at a much lower temperature than hard paste.

While not considered as true porcelain, soft paste porcelain is still highly sought after. Because of its obvious softness, which may be easily scratched, the painting tends to seep into the base texture, thus giving a translucent appearance and often dreamlike quality. Most of Mr. Cox's collection consists of soft paste porcelain, and many of the pieces are meticulously painted with lively clusters of flowers by JJ Bachelier, who began working at the factory in 175l. Mr. Cox also has two so-called biscuit pieces, also of soft paste, but unglazed, hence the similarity in look to biscuit, and which would have been fired only once. All glazed pieces were fired at least twice.