TWO SEVRES GREEN-GROUND FLOWER VASES (CUVETTES A FLEURS 'A TOMBEAU' 2EME GRANDEUR)

BLUE INTERLACED L'S ENCLOSING DATE LETTERS L AND M FOR 1764 AND 1765, UNIDENTIFIED PAINTERS' MARKS, INCISED FM AND (O W/SLASH THROUGH IT EXTENDING UPWARD)

Details
TWO SEVRES GREEN-GROUND FLOWER VASES (CUVETTES A FLEURS 'A TOMBEAU' 2EME GRANDEUR)
Blue interlaced L's enclosing date letters L and M for 1764 and 1765, unidentified painters' marks, incised FM and (O w/slash through it extending upward)
Each of shaped rectangular form, the rim and apron moulded with shells, painted with a rectangular panel of children in a landscape, reserved within gilt cartouches of small foliate scrolls edging a chased gilt band, the reverse with panels of flowers, the sides with a ribbon-tied wreath
7.3/8in.(8.8cm) wide (2)
Provenance
The Property of a Gentleman; Christie's, London, 30 November 1981, lot 18
With Winifred Williams

Lot Essay

The scenes are derived from La Chasse and Le Psche by Jean-Baptiste Le Prince after the pencil and wash drawings in the Victoria & Albert Museum by Franois Boucher. In 1752, Boucher painted eight decorative panels for Mme de Pompadour's octagonal boudoir at Crcy, now in the Frick Collection on which these engravings were based. See Pierrette Jean-Richard, L'Oeuvre grav de Franois Boucher dans la Collection de Edmond de Rothschild, Muse du Louvre, Paris, 1978, pp. 332-333, figs. 1384, 1385.

The pair of cuvettes fleurs ' tombeau' dated 1763 of similar size and colour in the collection of the British Museum and painted with scenes after Teniers shows an interesting and different relationship between the fond couleur and the undecorated porcelain. See Aileen Dawson, French Porcelain, A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection, London, 1994, pp.125-6, colour plate 15.

Also similar is a bleu nouveau pair in the collection of James A. de Rothschild at Waddesdon Manor. The catalogue of that Collection mentions that few caisses fleurs of any kind appear in the sales records of the mid 1760's and that their pair may be one of the two sold in December 1766; one bought by Louis XV for 204 livres and the other by his youngest daughter, Madame Sophie, for 288 livres. The present pair may equally be one of these.

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