Edmé Samson founded a hard porcelain factory in Paris in 1873. He is called the great imitator because he copied almost every manufacture from the 18th or 19th century, and even earlier Chinese and Japanese porcelain. What sometimes betrayed him was the use of hard porcelain while the original was made of soft porcelain (English). However, he did not always intend to defraud as he often worked for private collectors and museums to make replacements for lost porcelain.

Here we see two pugs that are clearly inspired by examples from Meissen. It concerns a male and a female with young, both sitting on the hind legs with a curled tail, this on a slightly raised oval flat base. The male turns his head to the left, the female to the right. Both figures have a glossy white glaze and are beautifully painted overglaze with a gray fur, a gray-black head with protruding lovely brown eyes. Both wear a pink collar with gilded pearls and a light blue bow at the back. The little one between momma’s front legs is cute. The base has single flowers of various colors and green leaves. At the bottom the edge is unglazed, the rest in white glaze. There is an underglaze blue mark of crossed (straight) swords, very similar to that of the Meissen factory, but a horizontal line runs through the intersection point, typical of early Samson porcelain that copied Meissen objects. The female has the letter “S” (Samson) painted in gold at the top between the swords. There is also a large engraved letter “V” on both (meaning? Anyone suggestions?).

The condition is superb except for two broken petals on the male