19TH CENTURY, SPURIOUSLY INSCRIBED FACET A ROUEN 1647 AND BLUE FLEUR-DE-LYS MARKS, AFTER MODELS BY NICHOLAS FOUQUAY

The present models are based on the renowned series of The Four Seasons, made in Rouen in about 1740 by the potter Nicolas Fouquay. For some time in the possession of the Dukes of Hamilton, the busts, their pedestals and an associated bust of Apollo were sold in 1883 at the famous Hamilton Palace sale, and are now in the Louvre. See Faïences Françaises XVIe-XVIIIe Siècles, exhibition catalogue, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 6 June - 25 August 1980, catalogue no. 328. See also Florence Slitine, Samson, génie de l'imitation, Paris, 2002, pp. 56-57 for illustrations of the Rouen originals and of full-size Samson copies of Summer, Winter, and Spring marked with both the factory's interlaced S mark and a fleur-de-lys similar to those on the present smaller examples.