Limoges Porcelain Boxes - Pretty Rabbits for Easter

If you are a Limoges porcelain collector, a collector of porcelain rabbits or if you just love the Easter bunny, you'll always know what you would like as a special gift - yes, yet another beautiful little box in the form of the Easter bunny or with a fine easter porcelain rabbit inside.

Limoges is famous for its magnificent Limousin beef cattle and for its porcelain Industry. Know as 'The Red City' because the fires from the kilns which burned constantly would light up the night sky with red flames.

Today, there are still many factories and many shops selling the wonderfully fine, strong and translucent porcelain that has made the city of Limoges so prosperous in the past, and these fine easter porcelain boxes are just such fun that you're bound to fall in love with them.

Easter was originally a pagan festival called 'eastre'; a celebration of spring, nature and fertility.

The rabbit, or hare, like eggs, is a pagan fertility symbol from antiquity, and a symbol of the goddess of fertility and of the rising fertility of the earth at the Vernal Equinox. These symbols were taken over by the Christian church where the egg became a symbol for the risen Christ.

The Easter Bunny, or Osterhase , was introduced to the United States by the German settlers who arrived in the Pennsylvania Dutch country during the 18th century. The Easter bunny is often depicted bearing symbols of spring, such as this willow, daffodils or snowdrops, and bearing gifts of eggs.

So many beautiful Limoges porcelain boxes have been produced, but the old ones are harder to find due to loss and breakage over the decades and centuries, making them very valuable and collectable items. The Limoges small boxes were originally used as snuff boxes, (Tabatiere in French) or as containers for sweets, (bonbonnieres) or scent. They also served as cane heads and small carrying cases, (etuis).

The most sought after pieces were produced in one of the Limoges factories between the late 1700s and about 1930; at one point, in the 1920's, there were up to 48 companies in the Limoges region producing porcelain marked Limoges.

If you're thinking about starting a collection, here are a few things to watch out for:

• Learn about all the different marks that you will find on pieces of Limoges porcelain. The earliest pieces of Limoges were done by royal commission and have a Fleur de Lys on them, these would be very rare pieces. You'll need a book to help you identify the marks.
• Make sure that what you are buying is the genuine article. Real Limoges will ding when it is flicked and the quality of the decoration should be good. There are many imitations.
• Some pieces were sold blank and exported to be painted by ladies at home in the 19th century so it is not always of the highest standard.
• Some pieces of Limoges porcelain have transfer instead of the finer hand painting. If you are going to be a collector you will need to educate yourself so that you know what you are looking for.
• Make sure it's in good condition.
• It might be a good idea to collect to a theme - Easter bunnies for example! But there are very many more ideas; Limoges porcelain is such a rich field.

I moved to Limousin in 2002, buying an old French farm and outbuildings not far from Limoges to set up Les Trois Chenes, (or The Three Oaks), painting holidays, a guest house and self-catering holiday cottage or gite. After what seems like years of building, we have finally achieved our goal and now I have leisure to look around me at all the finer things that this beautiful region has to offer. I'm turning my attention, not to keeping Limousin cattle, but to creating a collection of Limoges porcelain.

I began with the china for my bed and breakfast in Limousin - a beautiful set of white porcelain with a pattern of fruits in relief around the edge. So fine it is translucent. I have a few pieces that were left in the house and I am going to form my collection around those, but I'm going to try to find them in the marvelous vide greniers, (empty your attics), held in the area - a sort of cross between a car boot sale and an antiques fair. Why don't you treat yourself to a holiday in Limoges where you can discover Limoges Porcelain at first hand? Where to buy Limoges Porcelain in Limousin, France

At Les Trois Chenes we have lots of children; children of friends and of our guests. We also have chickens and our own fresh eggs, so we do like to celebrate Easter. We organise Easter egg (and Easter bunny) hunts, we enjoy Easter crafts and Easter cooking and traditions and I'd like to share just a few of them with you:

Easter Egg Hunts - The Vital Clues for an Easter Game

Limoges Porcelain Decorative Eggs for Easter

How to organise an Easter Egg Hunt

Chocolate Childrens' Books for Easter