CIRCA 1785-1800, THE SHEPHERD WITH IMPRESSED UPPERCASE NIDERVILLER MARK AND (LE) MIRE PERE, THE SHEPHERDESS WITH ENCUSE UPPERCASE MARK WITH INVERTED N ON AN APPLIED RIBBON AND INCISED SCRIPT NO 2, THE MODELS BY CHARLES GABRIEL SAUVAGE CALLED LEMIRE

The present models are almost certainly the work of Charles Gabriel Sauvage, called Lemire. A sculptor whose reputation rests on his charming figures of putti and other classical subjects, Lemire was working at the porcelain factory at Niderviller owned by Adam-Philippe, comte de Custine as early as 1759, his name appearing that year in a list of workers as Charles Mire garçon sculpteur. By 1778, the year Custine went into partnership with François-Henry Lanfrey, Lemire was already head of the modelling shop and artistic director of the factory.

An unmarked example of the present pair is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. See W. B. Honey, European Ceramic Art from the end of the Middle Ages to about 1815, London, 1952, vol. I, pp. 452-452, vol. II, plate 138; also Aileen Dawson, French Porcelain: A Catalogue of the British Museum, London, 1994, pp. 283-285.