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Lot Essay
Louis-Antoine Le Grand is recorded at Sèvres as a painter of figures, Chinoiserie, birds, flowers and patterns and as a gilder, 1776-1816. He specialized in vari-colored gilding on a matte-black ground which with the addition of platinum resulted in a rich surface in imitation of Chinese lacquer. The first of the services decorated in this manner was delivered in 1791 to A. Sémonville (1759-1839), Louis XVI's ambassador to Genoa.
Recent scholarship has reattributed the mark found on these plates, previously associated with Etienne-Henry LeGuay, to Le Grand. See D. Peters, Decorator and Date Marks of 18th Century Vincennes and see Sèvres Porcelain, privately printed, London, 1997, p. 47; also M.N. Pinot de Villechenon, Sèvres Porcelain from the Sèvres Museum 1740 to the Present Day, London, 1997, p. 42, fig. 48 and p. 141 for a similarly decorated ewer and basin and its mark.
Although a concentrated dark blue ground which the eye reads as black was developed at Sèvres in the early 1780s, it was not until 6 May 1791 that the first of a series of services recorded in the factory records as "fond noir Chinois en or de couleurs et platine fleurs mail" was delivered to "A.M. de Semonville Ambassadeur". A pair of seaux a demi-bouteille ordinaires similarly decorated to the present plates is in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum. A pair of seaux oval crenelés from the collection of John T. Dorrance, Jr., was sold Sotheby's, New York, 20 October 1978, lot 178 and again on 25 October 1991, lot 572. A seau à liqueur oval is in a private American collection.
See Selma Schwartz, "Chinoiserie Decoration on Black-ground Sèvres Porcelain", Schwartz Porcelain - The Lacquer Craze and its Impact on European Porcelain, Exhibition Catalogue, Museum für Lackkunst and Schloss Favorite near Rastatt, 2003, vol. III, pp. 98-107 for an analysis of the factory's production - the different permutations in which black ground gilt and platinum Chinoiserie decoration appears on teawares, service wares, and vases at Sèvres, a discussion of the likely sources for the decoration, and the 18th century European taste for Japanese lacquer that prompted its production.
See also C.C. Dauterman, The Wrightsman Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1970, vol. IV, pp. 223-324, no. 91 A&B; M. Brunet and T. Préaud, Sèvres, Des origines à nos jours, Paris, 1979, p. 224, nos. 300 and 301; S. Eriksen and G. de Bellaigue, Sèvres Porcelain, London, 1987, p. 352; and A. Sassoon, Vincennes and Sèvres Porcelain, Catalogue of the Collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, pp. 154, 156, notes 37 and 38 for a detailed discussion of extant pieces with decoration similar to that found on the present two plates, created by Sèvres in imitation of Japanese lacquer.
Recent scholarship has reattributed the mark found on these plates, previously associated with Etienne-Henry LeGuay, to Le Grand. See D. Peters, Decorator and Date Marks of 18th Century Vincennes and see Sèvres Porcelain, privately printed, London, 1997, p. 47; also M.N. Pinot de Villechenon, Sèvres Porcelain from the Sèvres Museum 1740 to the Present Day, London, 1997, p. 42, fig. 48 and p. 141 for a similarly decorated ewer and basin and its mark.
Although a concentrated dark blue ground which the eye reads as black was developed at Sèvres in the early 1780s, it was not until 6 May 1791 that the first of a series of services recorded in the factory records as "fond noir Chinois en or de couleurs et platine fleurs mail" was delivered to "A.M. de Semonville Ambassadeur". A pair of seaux a demi-bouteille ordinaires similarly decorated to the present plates is in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum. A pair of seaux oval crenelés from the collection of John T. Dorrance, Jr., was sold Sotheby's, New York, 20 October 1978, lot 178 and again on 25 October 1991, lot 572. A seau à liqueur oval is in a private American collection.
See Selma Schwartz, "Chinoiserie Decoration on Black-ground Sèvres Porcelain", Schwartz Porcelain - The Lacquer Craze and its Impact on European Porcelain, Exhibition Catalogue, Museum für Lackkunst and Schloss Favorite near Rastatt, 2003, vol. III, pp. 98-107 for an analysis of the factory's production - the different permutations in which black ground gilt and platinum Chinoiserie decoration appears on teawares, service wares, and vases at Sèvres, a discussion of the likely sources for the decoration, and the 18th century European taste for Japanese lacquer that prompted its production.
See also C.C. Dauterman, The Wrightsman Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1970, vol. IV, pp. 223-324, no. 91 A&B; M. Brunet and T. Préaud, Sèvres, Des origines à nos jours, Paris, 1979, p. 224, nos. 300 and 301; S. Eriksen and G. de Bellaigue, Sèvres Porcelain, London, 1987, p. 352; and A. Sassoon, Vincennes and Sèvres Porcelain, Catalogue of the Collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, pp. 154, 156, notes 37 and 38 for a detailed discussion of extant pieces with decoration similar to that found on the present two plates, created by Sèvres in imitation of Japanese lacquer.