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Lot Essay
Factory sales records note the delivery on 31 August 1773 to Jeanne Gomard de Vaubernier, comtesse Du Barry of a service described as both figures chinoises and fleurs chinoises. This service, made for the personal use of Louis XV and his paramour at the château de Louveciennes (the estate a gift from the king to his mistress in 1769) was possibly the first made using the relatively new 'hard paste' body. The composition of the service as listed in the sales records includes two full-size bottle coolers or sceaux à bouteille at a cost of 240 livres each and a single oval basket or corbeille ovale at cost of 216 livres among a large roster of serving pieces. Only ten plates at a cost of 140 livres each are noted, confirmation of intended use of this service at intimate suppers and not large formal occasions.
Until recently, it was not known if any pieces from the Du Barry chinoiserie service had survived. The emergence onto the market from the estate of Mary Duke Biddle Trent Seamans in whose family collection they have been for over fifty years of both Du Barry bottle coolers - the present example and its pair, sold on behalf of the estate at Brunk Auctions, Ashville, NC, 25 August 2013 as part of lot 157 - confirms the decoration to which the intriguing descriptions figures chinoises and fleurs chinoises refer, expands the roster of painters and gilders who contributed to its execution, and helps place in context three pieces previously thought to be associated in some way with the service - a pierced tray (plateau-corbeille ovale ajourée) now recognized as the oval basket listed in the sales records with Dragesco-Cramoisan in 1992, a soup plate with Parisian dealers Christophe Perlés and later Dragesco-Cramoisan in July 2013, and a second plate from the important Darmstaedter Collection, sold Berlin 24-26 March 1925, lot 502, its current whereabouts unknown - all of which are marked with gilt interlaced Ls enclosing the date letter V usually associated in the Sèvres factory's dating system with the year 1774. The mark on the pierced oval tray also includes the numeric date 1773 below the date letter, proof positive that the date letter V was used on 1773 production.
In his 2013 catalogue entry for the aforementioned chinoiserie soup plate now known to be decorated en suite with the present bottle cooler, Mr. Perlès describes it as likely one of two recorded in the Sèvres sales records as purchased by the duchesse de Mazarin on 28 March 1774, interestingly at a reduced cost of 96 livres, the attribution supported by presence of date letter V as part of the mark. He identifies the example in the Darmstaedter Collection as the second in the Mazarin purchase on the same basis. Knowing now that date letter V appears on serving pieces made for the Du Barry service, there is no reason to think that the same is not true of the plates. There is thus no way to differentiate with certainty between plates comprising the Du Barry and Mazarin purchases. Cf. Christophe Perlès, Céramiques Anciennes, vol. 14, cat. no. 59
Unfortunately, as records for 1773 and 1774 are sparse, it is not possible to compile a complete listing of the painters and gilders responsible for the charming decoration on the Du Barry chinoiserie service. However, by comparing the marks on extant pieces, one can confirm the identity of some and speculate on others based on the high quality of decoration. Both bottle coolers have the painter's mark of three horizontal dots used by the flower painter Jean-Baptiste Tandart l'âiné during his tenure at Vincennes and Sèvres 1754-1800, the mark appearing below the date letter but within the factory mark of interlaced Ls. Also so positioned on the Perlés/Dragesco-Cramoisan soup plate is the painter's mark for the figure painter Louis-François L'Ecot, with marks for the flower painter Nicolas Sinsson and the gilder Henry-Martin Prévost more typically placed below. It is tempting to assume that L'Ecot and Prévost were responsible as well for the chinoiserie figure painting and the gilding on the present cooler and its pair. However, Charles-Eloi Asselin (recorded 1765-1804) may equally have executed the chinoiserie vignettes and top gilders such as Etienne-Henry Le Guay père and Henry-François Vincent the gilding.
Our thanks to Bernard Dragesco for helping sift through available information on the Du Barry chinoiserie service, assembling the puzzle-pieces into a coherent whole.
Until recently, it was not known if any pieces from the Du Barry chinoiserie service had survived. The emergence onto the market from the estate of Mary Duke Biddle Trent Seamans in whose family collection they have been for over fifty years of both Du Barry bottle coolers - the present example and its pair, sold on behalf of the estate at Brunk Auctions, Ashville, NC, 25 August 2013 as part of lot 157 - confirms the decoration to which the intriguing descriptions figures chinoises and fleurs chinoises refer, expands the roster of painters and gilders who contributed to its execution, and helps place in context three pieces previously thought to be associated in some way with the service - a pierced tray (plateau-corbeille ovale ajourée) now recognized as the oval basket listed in the sales records with Dragesco-Cramoisan in 1992, a soup plate with Parisian dealers Christophe Perlés and later Dragesco-Cramoisan in July 2013, and a second plate from the important Darmstaedter Collection, sold Berlin 24-26 March 1925, lot 502, its current whereabouts unknown - all of which are marked with gilt interlaced Ls enclosing the date letter V usually associated in the Sèvres factory's dating system with the year 1774. The mark on the pierced oval tray also includes the numeric date 1773 below the date letter, proof positive that the date letter V was used on 1773 production.
In his 2013 catalogue entry for the aforementioned chinoiserie soup plate now known to be decorated en suite with the present bottle cooler, Mr. Perlès describes it as likely one of two recorded in the Sèvres sales records as purchased by the duchesse de Mazarin on 28 March 1774, interestingly at a reduced cost of 96 livres, the attribution supported by presence of date letter V as part of the mark. He identifies the example in the Darmstaedter Collection as the second in the Mazarin purchase on the same basis. Knowing now that date letter V appears on serving pieces made for the Du Barry service, there is no reason to think that the same is not true of the plates. There is thus no way to differentiate with certainty between plates comprising the Du Barry and Mazarin purchases. Cf. Christophe Perlès, Céramiques Anciennes, vol. 14, cat. no. 59
Unfortunately, as records for 1773 and 1774 are sparse, it is not possible to compile a complete listing of the painters and gilders responsible for the charming decoration on the Du Barry chinoiserie service. However, by comparing the marks on extant pieces, one can confirm the identity of some and speculate on others based on the high quality of decoration. Both bottle coolers have the painter's mark of three horizontal dots used by the flower painter Jean-Baptiste Tandart l'âiné during his tenure at Vincennes and Sèvres 1754-1800, the mark appearing below the date letter but within the factory mark of interlaced Ls. Also so positioned on the Perlés/Dragesco-Cramoisan soup plate is the painter's mark for the figure painter Louis-François L'Ecot, with marks for the flower painter Nicolas Sinsson and the gilder Henry-Martin Prévost more typically placed below. It is tempting to assume that L'Ecot and Prévost were responsible as well for the chinoiserie figure painting and the gilding on the present cooler and its pair. However, Charles-Eloi Asselin (recorded 1765-1804) may equally have executed the chinoiserie vignettes and top gilders such as Etienne-Henry Le Guay père and Henry-François Vincent the gilding.
Our thanks to Bernard Dragesco for helping sift through available information on the Du Barry chinoiserie service, assembling the puzzle-pieces into a coherent whole.