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Lot Essay
In her exhibition catalogue, Penelope Hunter-Stiebel explains that "The navette was a luxury item popular with ladies who used the artful winding of thread for their needlework as a means to show off a graceful hand and a well turned wrist."[Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour..., p. 74.]
See Antoinette Fäy-Hallé and Tamara Préaud, Porcelaines de Vincennes, Les origins de Sèvres, Exhibition Catalogue, Grand Palais, 14 October 1977 - 16 January 1978, p. 61, no. 111. The catalogue notes that twenty-four examples of this model are recorded as having been produced, of which eleven were with a bleu céleste ground.
No fewer than eleven shuttles were purchased between December 1754 and August 1756 by the noted marchand mercier, Lazard Duvaux, through whom patrons such as Madame de Pompadour often bought Sèvres porcelain. Four are described as bleu celeste, oiseaux, a description that could apply to the present example. Of these, two were purchased as singles and priced at 192 livres each. The remaining two, noted as two rather than as a pair and priced at 144 livres each. This entry may well refer to the present example and a second almost identical example recently circulating on the French art market. Both are painted in the same spirit with birds in conversation by Armand, reserved within a similar gilt cartouche on a ground of the same turquoise hue, and identically marked in the same place.
Until recently known only as 'The Crescent Painter', Louis-Denis Armand l'aîné is today recognized as one of the factory's foremost painters of birds. Active 1745 - 1788, his mark is also found on pieces finely painted with animals, landscapes and figures.
See Antoinette Fäy-Hallé and Tamara Préaud, Porcelaines de Vincennes, Les origins de Sèvres, Exhibition Catalogue, Grand Palais, 14 October 1977 - 16 January 1978, p. 61, no. 111. The catalogue notes that twenty-four examples of this model are recorded as having been produced, of which eleven were with a bleu céleste ground.
No fewer than eleven shuttles were purchased between December 1754 and August 1756 by the noted marchand mercier, Lazard Duvaux, through whom patrons such as Madame de Pompadour often bought Sèvres porcelain. Four are described as bleu celeste, oiseaux, a description that could apply to the present example. Of these, two were purchased as singles and priced at 192 livres each. The remaining two, noted as two rather than as a pair and priced at 144 livres each. This entry may well refer to the present example and a second almost identical example recently circulating on the French art market. Both are painted in the same spirit with birds in conversation by Armand, reserved within a similar gilt cartouche on a ground of the same turquoise hue, and identically marked in the same place.
Until recently known only as 'The Crescent Painter', Louis-Denis Armand l'aîné is today recognized as one of the factory's foremost painters of birds. Active 1745 - 1788, his mark is also found on pieces finely painted with animals, landscapes and figures.