Sèvres

In recognition of its vital importance to French-American relations, Reid Hall received the 1938 prize of the "Bonne Volonté Franco-Americaine." According to the document accompanying the prize:

In awarding Reid Hall the 1938 prize, the members of American Goodwill wished to affirm the excellence of the work pursued by its administrators with the greatest generosity and insight from the point of view of Franco-American friendship and the international diffusion of French culture (translated from French, RH Archives).

In the same period, Reid Hall was also gifted three large Sèvres porcelain vases, still on view today, from the Ministère de l'éducation nationale. Archival records do not tell us why or how the vases were gifted.

The vase with oxen was designed by Henri Patou, student of Félix Aubert, an artist-decorator at Sèvres between 1922 and 1942.

The vase with squirrels was designed by André Naudy, who was an artist-decorator at Sèvres in 1925 and then again from 1928 to 1934. A similar vase is on view at the museum, La Piscine, in Roubaix, France.

The vase with rabbits was designed by André Plantard, an artist-decorator at Sèvres from 1925 to 1969 who became the director of the decoration department from 1925 to 1975. An identical vase is on view at the museum, La Piscine, in Roubaix, France.

The Manufacture nationale de Sèvres remains one of Europe's principal porcelain manufactories. Founded in Vincennes in 1740, it moved to Sèvres in 1756. Owned by the French crown (later, the French government) since 1759, it has always maintained extraordinarily high standards of quality. Sèvres porcelain can be found in many of the world's royal palaces and in such significant art museums as The Louvre, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Hermitage, and, of course, the Sèvres National Ceramics Museum.

Sources

• "French Honor Reid Hall: Prize is Given to Center." New York Times, July 31, 1938, p. 38.
• "Prix de la Bonne Volonté Franco-Américaine." RH Archives.