VARIOUS PROPERTIES

TWELVE SÈVRES (HARD PASTE) BOTANICAL FOND AGATE DESSERT PLATES (ASSIETTE BOSSELAGE À GODRONS)

BLUE STENCILED CROWNED LP MONOGRAM MARKS FOR 1843, 1844 AND 1845, INCISED KILN DATES FOR DECEMBER 1841 - MARCH 1842, PAINTER'S MARKS FOR MME. M.B.

Details

TWELVE SÈVRES (HARD PASTE) BOTANICAL FOND AGATE DESSERT PLATES (ASSIETTE BOSSELAGE À GODRONS)
BLUE STENCILED CROWNED LP MONOGRAM MARKS FOR 1843, 1844 and 1845, INCISED KILN DATES FOR DECEMBER 1841 - March 1842, PAINTER'S MARKS FOR Mme. M.B.
Each center finely painted in colours with a specimen flower, identified in French on the reverse, the cavetto edged in gilt with a cell-pattern chain and foliage scrolls, the ligh greyish blue border moulded and edged in gilt as three concentric bands of overlapping graduated petals
8¾ in. (22.2 cm.) diameter (12)

Provenance

Delivered to King Louis Philippe and his consort in October and November 1843 as part of a dessert service.
By tradition, given as a diplomatic gift to the Marqués do Parana, Honorio Hermeto Carneiro Leào.
A gift to the present owner's grandmother, acquired from Gilman Collamore & Co., New York, 1909-1910, for $150.

Sale room notice

REVISED PROVENANCE
Part of a service bosselage à godrons delivered to Baroness Salomon de Rothschild, Vienna, 15 July 1847.
Colonel de Lagrene, son of the ambassador from France to the court at Vienna.
With Gilman Collamore & Co., New York, 1912.
By descent to the present owner.

The present set of plates was acquired in 1912 from Gilman Collamore & Co. as part of a group comprising 36 plates, 4 high shell-form compotes with dolphin feet, 4 low shell-form compotes, 2 oval sauce-tureens and covers on fixed stands, and 2 3-tiered dessert stands on pierced bases, all for a total of $2,500.

In a letter to the purchaser dated 5 September 1912, Gilman Collamore & Co. notes the provenance as follows: "This service is absolutely genuine and produced during the Epoch 1844-1848 Louis Philippe and comes from Col. de Lagrene, son of the Ambassador of France at Vienna, and the service has actually been in use at the French Embassy there."

The order for the full service, similar to that acquired three years earlier by Louis Philippe and given as a diplomatic gift as detailed in the catalogue entry, appears in the Sèvres records for 11 September 1846 (MNS Archives, Registre Vtt 6, folio 11). The botanical decoration took nearly a year to complete. The decorator's mark of M.B. is for Mme. M. Bunel, active at Sèvres as a flower painter.

The service entered the Magazin de Ventes on 13 July 1847 (Registre Vv4, folio 101) and was delivered to Baroness Salomon de Rothschild on 15 July 1847. How the service was acquired by Ambassador de Lagrene from the Rothschild family in Vienna is unknown. Another portion of the original service comprising 11 plates, 2 high compotes, and 1 tiered dessert stand was sold anonymously, Bonham's, 25 November 2006, lot 178.

Lot Essay

The archives at the Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres (Registre Vbb 10, folio 29 verso) records a service de dessert fond agate bouquet de fleurs delivered to Louis Phillipe for presentation on 10 November 1843. The service was a intended as a gift to Marqués do Parana, Honorio Hermeto Carneiro Leào, a thank you for his help in negociating the marriage of Princess Francisca, daughter of Emperor Pedro II of Brasil, to François d'Orléans, prince de Joinville and third son of Louis-Philippe and Marie Amélie in Rio de Janeiro on 1 May 1843.

The present set of plates may well have belonged to this diplomatic gift, the discrepancy in dates due to a slightly later delivery date for some of the plates. The fact that all were painted by the same hand speaks to their having always been together as part of a set.

A large portion of the service was sold by Christie's in Monaco, 7 December 1991, lot 148. More recently, a single plate was sold by Christie's Paris, 17 December 2003, lot 128. The compliment of the original service, costing 10,084 livres, is listed below with those pieces sold at auction noted in brackets.

Eighty-seven plates (assiettes bosselage à godrons) [18 in Monaco, 1 in Paris]
Four tiered cake stands (étagères) [3 in Monaco]
Two sugar-bowls and stands (sucriers et plateaux)
Twelve five-lobed shell-shape compotes on dolphin stems (compotiers à cinq coquilles pieds dauphin) [3 in Monaco]
Twelve compote stands pierced with grape-vine (porte-compotiers à rinceaux de vigne) [5 in Monaco]
Four five-lobed shell-shape dishes (compotiers à cinq coquilles pieds simple) [2 in Monaco]
Two footed baskets (corbeilles-coupes Fragonard) [1 in Monaco]
One basket pierced with palms (corbeille palmier) [1 in Monaco]

More from Important European Furniture, Works of Art, Ceramics, Tapestries and Carpets

View All