Soft-paste porcelain, painted by P.-A. Méreaud. The Service Arabesque was commissioned from the Sèvres porcelain factory in 1782. All the shapes were new neo-classical designs with arabesque decoration – based on engravings of the murals by Raphael in the Vatican – designed by an architect called Louis Le Masson for the factory. The service was intended to be made in the new hard paste porcelain, after technical problems most was made in the old soft paste body.