Lot 42
42
A PAIR OF SEVRES BISCUIT GROUPS OF LES MANGEURS DES RAISINS AND L'AGREABLE LECON
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VA… Read more
A PAIR OF SEVRES BISCUIT GROUPS OF LES MANGEURS DES RAISINS AND L'AGREABLE LECON

CIRCA 1765, THE FIRST WITH INCISED F TO ROCKWORK AT BACK, THE SECOND WITH INCISED SCRIPT B TO BASE

Details
A PAIR OF SEVRES BISCUIT GROUPS OF LES MANGEURS DES RAISINS AND L'AGREABLE LECON
Circa 1765, the first with incised F to rockwork at back, the second with incised script B to base
Modelled by Falconet after François Boucher, the first gallant and companion with a basket and apron of grapes, seated on rockwork before a tree-stump with a dog at their side, the second with a gallant with his arms around his companion's neck showing her how to play the flute, seated on rockwork before a tree-stump with a basket of flowers and a trailing bouquet of flowers at their sides and a sheep and dog at their feet (the first with repaired firing cracks to front of base and with chips to tree-stump and her left big toe lacking, the second with his little finger, her left big toe, sheep's ears lacking, damage to lead, crack to sheep's back and with some minor chipping to flowers)
9¼ in. (23.5 cm.) and 8¾ in. (22 cm.) high (2)
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Sèvres modelled these biscuit figures for the first time in 1752. Les Mangeurs des Raisins is executed after a painting by Boucher in 1749, now in the Wallace Collection, London. The same model is at the Musée de Sèvres (T. Preaud and A. Faÿ-Hallé, Porcelaines de Vincennes, Les Origines de Sèvres, exhibition catalogue, Grand Palais, Paris, 14 October 1977-16 January 1978, fig. 496). The second group is taken from René Gaillard's engraving L'Agréable Leçon after the painting of the same title by Boucher exhibited at the Salon of 1748 (see for the engraving J.-R. Pierrette, L'Oeuvre gravé de François Boucher, dans la Collection Edmond de Rothschild, Paris, 1978, fig. 1029). Similar examples from the Elizabeth Parke Firestone Collection were sold Christie's New York, 21 March 1991, lots 109 ($9,000) and 110 ($2,400). See also E. Bourgeois, Le Biscuit de Sèvres (n.d.), nos. 313 and 398, and for a full discussion of these pieces and illustrated examples in the J. Paul Getty Museum, see A. Sassoon, Vincennes and Sèvres Porcelain, 1991, p. 29-35.

More from Important European Furniture,Tapestries, Carpets & Porcelain

View All
View All