THE CAN CIRCA 1778, THE SAUCER CIRCA 1775, THE COFFEE CAN WITH INCISED LETTER N, WITH REMNANTS OF GILT MARK, BLUE INTERLACED 'L'S MARK TO SAUCER ENCLOSING DATE LETTER X ABOVE PAINTER'S MARK FOR BOULANGER, BLUE * TO FOOTRIM

Details

A SEVRES BLEU NOUVEAU COFFEE CAN (GOBELET LITRON) AND A SAUCER
THE CAN CIRCA 1778, THE SAUCER CIRCA 1775, THE COFFEE CAN WITH INCISED LETTER N, WITH REMNANTS OF GILT MARK, BLUE INTERLACED 'L'S MARK TO SAUCER ENCLOSING DATE LETTER X ABOVE PAINTER'S MARK FOR BOULANGER, BLUE * TO FOOTRIM
The cup attributed to Pithou l'ainé, painted with three children at play in landscape in a gilt catouche, the ground gilt with a band of scrolling foliage, the saucer painted with bagpipes, a basket of flowers, a shepherdess's crook, a garland and a hat in a wooded landscape, the border gilt with scrolls, pendant flowerheads and floral swags (2)

Provenance

Purchased by George Byng Esq. M.P. (d.1847) at Oxenham's, June 1836, and by descent.

Literature

'List of Furniture, Porcelain, Paintings & C., purchased by George Byng Esq., for Wrotham Park, 1816-43','June 1836 Oxenham An old Sevres Cup and Saucer painted in figures by Boucher ground Blue du Roi £6 7s 6d.'
Wrotham Park 1847 Inventory,'SECOND DRAWING ROOM Four Dresden china cups & saucers (expanded in 1883 list as A gros bleu and gilt old Sevres Cup and saucer decorated with subjects from Boucher).'

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

This gobelet litron - with its distinctive husk-trail gilding - is a pair to that acquired by George IV and now in the Royal Collection. Illustrated and discussed by G. de Bellaigue in 'The Sèvres, Porcelain from the Royal Collection', Exhibition Catalogue, The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, 1979/1980 (London, 1979) pp. 124-5, no. 131, Sir Geoffrey has identified the cup and saucer in the Royal Collection, as well as the Byng cup, with an entry in the Sèvres painters records for 1778, where the subjects are described as 'Jupiter in the guise of Diana seducing Calysto' (Royal Collection) and 'children playing'. From whom the cup in the Royal Collection was acquired is not recorded, but it is first mentioned in the Bow Room at Carlton House in 1826.

We are enormously grateful to Sir Geoffrey de Bellaigue G.C.V.O. F.B.A. F.S.A. for his assistance.

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