174. Paris, Dihl et Guerhard, vase à décor de portrait, circa 1800-1810 A Paris, Dihl et Guerhard signed portrait vase, circa 1800-1810 Superbly decorated with an oval portrait medallion of a young man wearing the order of the Légion d'honneur, pinned to the left lapel of his military jacket, wearing gold thread epaulettes, the reverse with the initials AI in gilt letters against a pale blue ground, the vase itself decorated with a high-finished gilding with tooled cartouches around the medallions flanked by two stylised architectural elements, the foot and neck with similar highly worked and tooled gilding, 24.3cm high, 'Dihl' in tooled script to the side of the square base Christophe Erasmus Dihl was born in 1768 near Mannheim, and was trained already as a young man in chemistry. He understood the chemical processes necessary for the manufacture of porcelain, had access to moulds, and decided to found his business in buoyant Paris. He emigrated in 1778, but as a non-Parisian, he was not allowed to set up his own factory and joined forces with a couple already based in Paris called Guérhard. After Mons. Guérhard's death, Dihl married his widow, and continued the business. The factory became one of the most famous and successful factories in Paris,in some cases even outshining the Sèvres factory in output and orders. Their clients included everyone from Napoleon Bonaparte to George Washington.