Antique porcelain bisque/biscuit nude Venus, anchor mark, England, France, 1750-1850(?) Height: 28.7 inches; Base diameter: 11 inches; Approximate weight: 35 lb. = 16 kg; Condition; normal wear for the age, no defects. Provenance: from private collection in London UK in 1920-1980’s. REFERENCES: Biscuit porcelain, bisque porcelain or bisque is unglazed, white porcelain treated as a final product,[1][2] with a matte appearance and texture to the touch. It has been widely used in European pottery, mainly for sculptural and decorative objects that are not tableware and so do not need a glaze for protection. The term "biscuit" refers to any type of fired but unglazed pottery in the course of manufacture, but only in porcelain is biscuit or bisque a term for a final product. Unglazed earthenware as a final product is often called terracotta, and in stoneware equivalent unglazed wares (such as jasperware) are often called "dry-bodied". Many types of pottery, including most porcelain wares, have a glaze applied, either before a single firing, or at the biscuit stage, with a further firing. Small figurines and other decorative pieces have often been made in biscuit, as well as larger portrait busts and other sculptures; the appearance of biscuit is very similar to that of carved and smoothed marble, the traditional prestige material for sculpture in the West. It is hardly used in Chinese porcelain or that of other East Asian countries, but in Europe became very popular for figures in the second half of the 18th century, as Neoclassicism dominated contemporary styles. It was first used at Vincennes porcelain in 1751 by Jean-Jacques Bachelier.[3] Biscuit figures have to be free from the common small imperfections that a glaze and painted decoration could cover up, and were therefore usually more expensive than glazed ones. They are also more difficult to keep clean. 🇬🇧 English Origins (Chelsea, Bow, Derby, etc.) One of the earliest and most famous anchor marks is from the Chelsea Porcelain Works (London), used mid-18th century (c.1750s–1760s). This was often: • a painted or gilt anchor (sometimes very simple), • or paired with other marks. Figures from this period can be rare and valuable, but there were also many later replicas and 19th-century English porcelain figures using anchor marks. If your anchor is gilded or hand-painted and not stamped, and the figure is finely modelled/classical in style, that could suggest 18th-century English porcelain (London), but these are uncommon outside institutional collections. 🇫🇷 French Makers (Vion & Baury) The Vion & Baury factory in Paris is well-documented as using an anchor mark in the latter 19th century (c.1870–1890) on bisque porcelain figures — including mythological subjects such as Venus. Auction records show bisque Venus figurines with this anchor mark selling as 19th-century decorative pieces.