Lot Essay
The present portraits are of Charles-Ferdinand, duc de Berry and son of Charles X and his wife Marie-Caroline-Ferdinande-Louise de Bourbon, daughter of Francis II, King of the Two Sicilies who married in 1816. Biscuit portrait medallions of the couple were made by Svres between 1817 and the duc's death by assasination three years later.
The Svres work sheets for the year 1817 list Augustin Lianc as having been paid 1,25 francs for each of 25 "mdaillons fond bleu de la duchesse de Berry" at the end of April and for 12 more in July (MNS., Archives, Registre Va'22, folios 139 et sq.). In April of that year, Jean-Jacques Oger was paid the same amount for "13 mdaillons fond bleu du duc de Berry" (Ibid., folios 134 et sq.) and for a previous 20 in January and 5 in February. Given the number of examples and the fact that each 'grouping' was fired in the same kiln, it is impossible to determine exactly which example was sold when and therefore to confirm a specific provenance for the present examples.
A second version of the portrait of the duchesse de Berry was modelled for Svres by Jean-Charles Nicholas Brachard in 1820 and executed both on a coloured biscuit ground and dcoup. An example is in the collection of the British Museum. See Aileen Dawson, French Porcelain, A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection, London, 1994, pp. 207-208, no. 174.
The Svres work sheets for the year 1817 list Augustin Lianc as having been paid 1,25 francs for each of 25 "mdaillons fond bleu de la duchesse de Berry" at the end of April and for 12 more in July (MNS., Archives, Registre Va'22, folios 139 et sq.). In April of that year, Jean-Jacques Oger was paid the same amount for "13 mdaillons fond bleu du duc de Berry" (Ibid., folios 134 et sq.) and for a previous 20 in January and 5 in February. Given the number of examples and the fact that each 'grouping' was fired in the same kiln, it is impossible to determine exactly which example was sold when and therefore to confirm a specific provenance for the present examples.
A second version of the portrait of the duchesse de Berry was modelled for Svres by Jean-Charles Nicholas Brachard in 1820 and executed both on a coloured biscuit ground and dcoup. An example is in the collection of the British Museum. See Aileen Dawson, French Porcelain, A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection, London, 1994, pp. 207-208, no. 174.