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Lot Essay
The present glass cooler is one of twelve, priced at 120 livres each, included in the service presented to Frederick V, King of Denmark and Norway by the French king. Reciprocating a gift of stallions, the harlequin service was painted with flowers, with fruit and flowers, with birds, or with a mixture these elements, the painted panels reserved on the mottled green ground within tooled gilt rocaille cartouches of foliate scrolls, flower sprays and variant diaper patterns.
Delivered in tranches through Lazare Duvaux to François-Joachim de Pierre, abbé-comte de Bernis, Minister of Foreign Affairs and later cardinal de Bernis and French ambassador to Rome (Lazare Duvaux, Livre Journal, nos. 3068, 3284), the service arrived in Copenhagen 25 April 1758 where it was received on behalf of his majesty the king by M. le comte de Wedelfryes, Danish Envoy-Extraordinaire. A large portion of this diplomatic gift is now in the collection of the Hermitage, St Petersburg.
See David Peters, Sèvres Plates and Services of the 18th Century, privately printed, 2005, vol. II, cat. no. 57-2, pp. 295-298 for a detailed discussion of the service; also Dorothée Duillemé Brulon, "Les services de porcelaine de Sèvres présents des rois Louis XV et Louis XVI aux souverains étrangers", Versailles et les tables royales en Europe, SXVIIème-XIXème siècles, Exhibition Catalogue, 1993, pp. 184-187; and Nina Birioukova and Natalia Kazekevitch, La porcelaine de Sèvres du XVIII siècle - Catalogue de la collection, Hermitage Museum, 2005, pp. 17, 115-129 - cat. nos. 41-128.
The painter's mark of three pendant petals found on the present cooler appears on Vincennes wares painted to a high standard with flowers. Although illustrated in the 'unattributed' section of his book, David Peters postulates that the mark was used by one of the better-paid flower painters active at that time, suggesting Jean-Baptiste-François Alexandre, recorded 1751-1757, as a likely candidate. See David Peters, op. cit., vol. I, pp. 15, 96 for information on the mark.
Delivered in tranches through Lazare Duvaux to François-Joachim de Pierre, abbé-comte de Bernis, Minister of Foreign Affairs and later cardinal de Bernis and French ambassador to Rome (Lazare Duvaux, Livre Journal, nos. 3068, 3284), the service arrived in Copenhagen 25 April 1758 where it was received on behalf of his majesty the king by M. le comte de Wedelfryes, Danish Envoy-Extraordinaire. A large portion of this diplomatic gift is now in the collection of the Hermitage, St Petersburg.
See David Peters, Sèvres Plates and Services of the 18th Century, privately printed, 2005, vol. II, cat. no. 57-2, pp. 295-298 for a detailed discussion of the service; also Dorothée Duillemé Brulon, "Les services de porcelaine de Sèvres présents des rois Louis XV et Louis XVI aux souverains étrangers", Versailles et les tables royales en Europe, SXVIIème-XIXème siècles, Exhibition Catalogue, 1993, pp. 184-187; and Nina Birioukova and Natalia Kazekevitch, La porcelaine de Sèvres du XVIII siècle - Catalogue de la collection, Hermitage Museum, 2005, pp. 17, 115-129 - cat. nos. 41-128.
The painter's mark of three pendant petals found on the present cooler appears on Vincennes wares painted to a high standard with flowers. Although illustrated in the 'unattributed' section of his book, David Peters postulates that the mark was used by one of the better-paid flower painters active at that time, suggesting Jean-Baptiste-François Alexandre, recorded 1751-1757, as a likely candidate. See David Peters, op. cit., vol. I, pp. 15, 96 for information on the mark.