Serving Sèvres : Raising a Vanderbilt tea cup to The Gilded Age Season 2 and what comes next!

Serving Sèvres for tea time. Celebrating Season 2 of Gilded Age and what's coming next!

Although The Gilded Age series, Season 1, came to a fancy ballroom bash conclusion this week, we're delighted in knowing there will be a Season 2 as HBO/Max announced last month.  We at BTS, raise a teacup toast to the very good news - serving it up in an oh-so-appropriate Sèvres tea set from the Vanderbilt family collection at Biltmore.

Vanderbilt's Sèvres tea set on display at The Biltmore Legacy building

While we don't have the original - ours Sèvres set is a reproduction sold in the Biltmore gift shop - we've viewed pieces from the collection at the Biltmore home. On our last visit in 2019 for the "Vanderbilt House Party - The Gilded Age" exhibit, the Sèvres porcelain, created for the residents of the Biltmore in 1888, was on display in the Oak Sitting Room as well as the Louis XV guest bedroom.  Pieces are also showcased in The Biltmore Legacy building on the estate's Antler Hill Village.

The Oak Sitting Room and Sèvres at Biltmore

Guests at the Oak Sitting Room

Per the Biltmore website, the Vanderbilt's Sèvres china is a "revival of rococo style, denoted by its curving design and sumptuous use of gilding and rich color."  

Exactly!

Sèvres tea set in the Louis XV bedroom - two connections to former residents of Versailles

Louis XV guest room at Biltmore

Sèvres is fine porcelain from France, with a rich history. The company started in the 18th century near Vincennes, but moved to Sèvres (near Versailles)  due to the encouragement of one of its high profile patrons, Madame Pompadour, the mistress of Louis XV.  According to Britannica.com, when Meissen porcelain began to decline, Sèvres became the leading porcelain factory in Europe. (More on Sèvres in an upcoming blog, so stay tuned!)

Description of Sèvres on back of saucer

 Two sets of different sugar bowls and creamers in BTS collection - but why?

In what could be described as our own Gilded Age conspicuous consumption, or just a current-day memory lapse, we have two different sugar bowls and creamers, purchased at two different times at Biltmore. While I do believe Bertha Russell may applaud our unintentional excess, we fear Agnes Van Rijn would disapprove.

Winter tea presentations

Meadow Brook tea

Zoom tea talks this winter, too!

With the final BTS "Gilded Age / Downton Abbey" presentations for the winter season behind us as of last week (more to come soon!)  and our Monday nights now free, we will have time to once again write blog stories on this captivating time period as well as, well, all the other tea-related topics! 

Another year for The Gilded Age, Season two, however there's more to keep us busy!

But don't loosen your corset just yet. While one period drama door closes, another one swings open to fill the void. Bridgerton Season 2 begins tonight!

Bridgerton Season 2 is here!