Plates collection

Jérôme de Maupas was a great collector. One of his biggest passions was the white earthenware, also known as “faïence”. His collection of plates from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries has almost one thousand pieces. His grandson, Théophile de Maupas, decided to display this impressive collection of plates on the walls of the Grand Staircase.

Théophile was also responsible for the restoration and upgrades made to the Castle beginning in 1866. The staircase display is the only one of its kind in France. Every single plate in the collection has a unique design, and each and everyone of them came from the most exclusive manufacturers in Europe, including Delft, Moustiers, Italy and the East Indies Company.

The collection includes complete series (many of them unavailable after the Revolution) as well as examples of famous designs, like the Moustiers St-Marie’s yellow, Delft’s blue, the Luneville-St-Clément’s pink, or the multi-colored “ingenuities” by LaRochelle.

Most of the French manufacturers stopped production in 1789 because of the Revolution, but the “Revolutionary” plates from Nevers, with both Republican and Monarchic motifs, have a special place in the Grand Staircase.