Details
AN EMPIRE PORCELAIN GOLD-GROUND SUGAR-BOWL, COVER AND STAND FROM THE 'SERVICE DU ROI DE BAVIRE' (SUCRIER 'AIGLE')
Svres, date code for 1807, iron-red stencilled marks, the bowl incised 7 H and impressed L, the stand incised 8 and impressed L
The oval bowl with eagle-head handles extending from each end, the cover finial modelled as an eaglet emerging from its egg, richly painted in colours on the burnished gold ground with a tight garland of flowers including roses, lilacs, anemones, chrysanthemums, primroses, morning glories, pansies, begonias, marigolds, blue bells and poenies, the gilt matte lower body of the bowl gadrooned
12.3/8in. (31.3cm.) wide, the stand (2)
Sale room notice
The Svres factory records note two services of the exact same decoration as the present lot, described as fond d'or guirlande de fleurs. One was that made for the queen of Bavaria. Two sugar-bowls at 500 francs each were delivered to her in December 1808 (MNS, Archives, Registre Vy 18, folio 64 verso). The second was made for Emperor Napoleon I at Compigne and included four sugar-bowls of the exact same form, decoration and price. These were delivered in 1809. Cf. Versailles et le tables royales en Europe, exhibition catalogue, Muse national des chteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, 1993, p. 227. It is interesting to note that the part of the mark on the stand noting that the Svres factory was the 'Manufacture Imperial' has been scratched off. This is likely to have occured during the Restauration. Although it is impossible to determine with 100 certainty to which of these two services the present sucrier aigles originally belonged, the fact that the mark has been defaced would seem to indicate that the sugar-bowl was still retained in the garde meuble when Louis XVIII came to the throne. It is therefore more likely that the piece was originally part of the service delivered to Napoleon.
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