CIRCA 1758, BLUE ELABORATE INTERLACED L MARK ENCLOSING DATE LETTER E, INDISTINCT PAINTER'S MARK, PROBABLY FOR PIERRE-JOSEPH ROSSET

Punch was usually a mixture of lemon, sugar, tea and alchohol and is recorded in France from the middle of the 17th century. Punch-bowls were included in most dessert services where they were amongst the most expensive items. Three were included in the Vincennes bleu céleste service for Louis XV; one was priced at 1,000 livres and delivered in 1753 and two more were delivered in 1754 costing 1,200 livres and 1,500 livres. They were normally accompanied by a mortar (for mixing fruit and spices to be added to the punch) and a spoon. A similarly decorated punch-bowl dating to 1773 was sold in these Rooms on 21 November 2005, lot 276.

Pierre-Joseph Rosset was a painter of flowers, landscapes and patterns at Vincennes and Sèvres from 1753 to 1795.