Lot Essay
This pattern of low relief decoration is referred to as 'assiette à ozier entrelassé' in the 1752 stock list. It then appears as 'assiette à berceaux' in sales ledgers.
In 1753 plates of this form and with this style of decoration appear several times in the factory records. Fifteen plates purchased by the King's commissaire at Vincennes, M. de Courteille on 11 August 1753, are described in the sales ledgers as 'assiettes à berceaux, oiseaux, fleurs Guirlandes' (Vy 1 fol. 15). He purchased a further four plates on the 7 December of the same year. Another sale of fifteen plates to M. de la Boissière occurred on 4 September 1753 (Vy 1 fol. 20 v°). Further similar plates are known but with slight variations to the decoration of the border, in particular the with garlands of flowers to the border are painted en camaïeu bleu. See Tamara Préaud and Antoine d'Albis, La Porcelaine de Vincennes (Paris, 1991), p. 151, no. 117 for a similar example in the musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris; this example is also illustrated by Svend Eriksen and Geoffrey de Bellaigue, Sèvres Porcelain, Vincennes and Sèvres, 1740-1800 (London, 1987), p. 261, no. 76. See also Tamara Préaud and Antoinette Faÿ-Hallé, Exhibition catalogue, Porcelaines de Vincennes, Les Origines de Sèvres (Paris, 1977), p. 31, nos. 30-31 for two similar plates from the musée des Beaux Arts et d'Archéologie, Boulogne-sur-Mer. Two others, now in a private collection, were sold Etude Enchères République, Chateaudun, 19 April 2009, lots 91 and 92.
Armand l'aîné's personal mark (crescent) was identified in 1993 by Bernard Dragesco, from very detailed research of the Sèvres archives (especially from the payment records of the factory painters) and from a group of newly rediscovered annotated drawings by his hand (see detail opposite). Louis-Denis Armand l'aîné was a painter of birds, animals, landscapes and figures at Vincennes and Sèvres from 1745 to 1788.
Christie's gratefully acknowledge the assitance and advice of David Peters in the preparation of this footnote.
In 1753 plates of this form and with this style of decoration appear several times in the factory records. Fifteen plates purchased by the King's commissaire at Vincennes, M. de Courteille on 11 August 1753, are described in the sales ledgers as 'assiettes à berceaux, oiseaux, fleurs Guirlandes' (Vy 1 fol. 15). He purchased a further four plates on the 7 December of the same year. Another sale of fifteen plates to M. de la Boissière occurred on 4 September 1753 (Vy 1 fol. 20 v°). Further similar plates are known but with slight variations to the decoration of the border, in particular the with garlands of flowers to the border are painted en camaïeu bleu. See Tamara Préaud and Antoine d'Albis, La Porcelaine de Vincennes (Paris, 1991), p. 151, no. 117 for a similar example in the musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris; this example is also illustrated by Svend Eriksen and Geoffrey de Bellaigue, Sèvres Porcelain, Vincennes and Sèvres, 1740-1800 (London, 1987), p. 261, no. 76. See also Tamara Préaud and Antoinette Faÿ-Hallé, Exhibition catalogue, Porcelaines de Vincennes, Les Origines de Sèvres (Paris, 1977), p. 31, nos. 30-31 for two similar plates from the musée des Beaux Arts et d'Archéologie, Boulogne-sur-Mer. Two others, now in a private collection, were sold Etude Enchères République, Chateaudun, 19 April 2009, lots 91 and 92.
Armand l'aîné's personal mark (crescent) was identified in 1993 by Bernard Dragesco, from very detailed research of the Sèvres archives (especially from the payment records of the factory painters) and from a group of newly rediscovered annotated drawings by his hand (see detail opposite). Louis-Denis Armand l'aîné was a painter of birds, animals, landscapes and figures at Vincennes and Sèvres from 1745 to 1788.
Christie's gratefully acknowledge the assitance and advice of David Peters in the preparation of this footnote.