A PAIR OF SVRES ROSSO ANTICO 'ASSIETTES PLATES'

CIRCA 1856, IRON-RED CROWNED N, GREEN LOZENGE S. 53 AND S. 56, INCISED B-53-3 AND L-55-12

Details

A PAIR OF SVRES ROSSO ANTICO 'ASSIETTES PLATES'
Circa 1856, iron-red crowned N, green lozenge S. 53 and S. 56, incised B-53-3 and L-55-12
Both painted in the Pompeian taste, one with a grasshopper, sweetpeas and grasses in a cart drawn by a dove on a grassy ledge above white scrolls; the other with a butterfly and laurel branch in a cart drawn by a griffin on a rocky ledge above white scrolls, within a band of sepia and gilt stripes and a further band of gilt trellis diaper, the rims gilt with paired foliate scrolls alternating with gilt and white flowerheads
9in. (24.2cm.) diam. (2)

Provenance

Prince Napoleon (Napoleon-Joseph-Charles-Paul Bonaparte)

Lot Essay

The pair of plates in the present lot are from a service commissioned by Prince Napoleon (Napoleon-Joseph-Charles-Paul Bonaparte) in 1856. There were seventy-two assiettes plates listed in the factory records for the dessert service 'fd. rouge dcor trusque'. It is thought that Prince Napoleon (notoriously immoral and nicknamed Plon-Plon) ordered the service for his mistress, the tragic actress Mademoiselle Rachel (Flix). See Aileen Dawson, French Porcelain, A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection, London, 1994, pp. 230-232, for an extensive discussion on this service.

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