Sèvres was the most illustrious and innovative porcelain factory in 18th Century France, employing brilliant artisans as painters, modellers, gilders and technicians. Spectacular vases and finely decorated dining services made at Sèvres added lustre and glamour to the grandest of state rooms and the most intimate of boudoirs in the nearby Palace of Versailles. These objects of desire were sought after by the nobility during Europe's Ancien Régime, by English collectors such as the Prince Regent and, generations later, by a new moneyed aristocracy in America's 'Gilded Age'. However, the origins of this most fashionable porcelain factory were very different. Established in 1740 as a pioneering venture within the old royal Château de Vincennes on the eastern side of Paris, far from the radiance of Versailles, the first steps were a struggle against financial collapse and involved a difficult quest to develop a suitable porcelain paste which could tolerate the intense heat of the kiln. The aim was to match the allure of desirable Oriental porcelain and to compete with the pioneering factory at Meissen near Dresden. These early endeavours at Vincennes, encouraged by the patronage of Madame de Pompadour and King Louis XV, witnessed the invention of a fine white soft-paste material, a tactile glaze, exquisite gilding and brilliant jewel-like background colours such as bleu lapis, which emulated lapis lazuli and the vibrant bleu céleste, a turquoise pigment which would become one of Sèvres's signature colours. Vincennes is particularly famous for the making of delicate naturalistic flowers made up into bouquets which adorned vases and clocks or hung from chandeliers. Decorative patterns of  flowers and flying birds were painted with a lightness of touch. After those early years at Vincennes, by 1756 the workshops moved to Sèvres and so began a new golden age for what would become a royal enterprise.