Sèvres

Proper noun

Sèvres

1. A town in France on the outskirts of Paris.
   • […]but at Sèvres and other places for shaping of courtly clay, the charmingest things were done,[…]1871 June 1, John Ruskin, “Letter VI”, in Fors Clavigera. Letters to the Workmen and Labourers of Great Britain, volume I, Orpington, Kent: George Allen, →OCLC, page 9
2. (attributive, often) A type of expensive porcelain traditionally made there.
   • […]let them tell me candidly which is nearest truth, the gold of Turner, or the mourning and murky olive browns and verdigris greens in which Claude, with the industry and intelligence of a Sevres china painter, drags the laborious bramble leaves over his childish foreground.1843, [John Ruskin], chapter 2, in Modern Painters […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, part II (Of Truth), section VI (Of Truth of Vegetation—Conclusion), § 7, page 123
   • Finally his bell sounded, and Victor came in softly with a cup of tea, and a pile of letters, on a small tray of old Sèvres china, and drew back the olive-satin curtains, with their shimmering blue lining, that hung in front of the three tall windows.1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter VIII, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC, page 137