Lot Essay
The design of the cuvette 'Mahon' has been ascribed to Jean-Claude Duplessis, pre on stylistic grounds, although there is no documentary evidence to support the attribution. According to Svend Erikson, the name would seem to be related to the city of Mahon on the island of Minorca off the coast Spain which capture in 1757 by the duc de Richelieu was one of the great triumphs for the French of the Seven Years War. In celebration of the battle, the name Mahon was attached to various contemporary social and cultural events including the invention of a rich egg-based sauce, sauce la Mahon, known today as mayonnaise. See Barry Shifman, "Eighteenth-century Svres Porcelain: Two Rare Cuvettes Mahon", Apollo, January 1985, pp. 24-29 for a discussion of other known examples of the shape which was produced by the factory in three sizes.
The scene on the front panel is taken from an etching by Gabriel Huquier, le pere after a drawing in reverse by Franois Boucher first published in 1736. See Pierrette Jean-Richard, L'Oeuvre grav de Franois Boucher en la collection de Edmond de Rothschild, Paris, 1978, p.271, no. 1089.
The application of the rose marbr ground was tedious, involving the application of a blue ground over a fired pink ground and the scraping away of the blue to reveal the pink below in a desired marbled pattern. The same subtle difference in the treatment of the rose marbr ground on the long and short sides is apparent on the pair of smaller cuvettes 'Mahon' in the collection of the British Museum. See Aileen Dawson, French Porcelain, A Catalogue of the Collection of the British Museum, London, 1994, p. 115, no. 103, colour plate 16.
The scene on the front panel is taken from an etching by Gabriel Huquier, le pere after a drawing in reverse by Franois Boucher first published in 1736. See Pierrette Jean-Richard, L'Oeuvre grav de Franois Boucher en la collection de Edmond de Rothschild, Paris, 1978, p.271, no. 1089.
The application of the rose marbr ground was tedious, involving the application of a blue ground over a fired pink ground and the scraping away of the blue to reveal the pink below in a desired marbled pattern. The same subtle difference in the treatment of the rose marbr ground on the long and short sides is apparent on the pair of smaller cuvettes 'Mahon' in the collection of the British Museum. See Aileen Dawson, French Porcelain, A Catalogue of the Collection of the British Museum, London, 1994, p. 115, no. 103, colour plate 16.