Lot Essay
This butter-tub, cover and stand is recorded in the Sèvres archives (Vy 1 fol. 11 vo) as being livré a Mgr le Garde des Sceaux on 8th August 1753 at a cost of 120 livres: 1 beurrier 1ere grandeur fond vert bleu oiseaux/1 Plateau (idem)
After Orry de Fulvy's death, Vincennes fell under the jurisdiction of Machault d'Arnouville, who was acting as Contrôleur Général des Finances. Like his predecessor, Machault d'Arnouville began to be the recipient of new and experimental pieces at preferential rates. This ground colour is extremely rare and original, and can be dated to early 1753 when J. Hellot was experimenting with ground colour combinations for submission to Louis XV, who had ordered a large service (the first delivery of which was made on 24th December 1753). The pigment used for this ground colour was Venetian aquamarine, or aigue marine de Venise, produced from crushed tinted-blue-glass; the ground colour was unstable when fired. For a discussion of this, see Tamara Préaud and Antoine d'Albis, La Porcelaine de Vincennes (Paris, 1991), p. 217. A. d'Albis has suggested that the unusually light colour of the ground is explained by the application of only one layer of colour. In order for the gilding to work on this ground, it was necessary to apply more layers than usual, giving the gilding a dazzling richness. The form of this piece was experimental too, and was soon replaced by a simpler one. A gold-mounted ewer and cover with a slightly different experimental pale-blue ground was sold by Christie's, New York, on 5 May 1999, lot 30.
Christie's gratefully acknowledge the assitance of Antoine d'Albis in the preparation of this footnote.
After Orry de Fulvy's death, Vincennes fell under the jurisdiction of Machault d'Arnouville, who was acting as Contrôleur Général des Finances. Like his predecessor, Machault d'Arnouville began to be the recipient of new and experimental pieces at preferential rates. This ground colour is extremely rare and original, and can be dated to early 1753 when J. Hellot was experimenting with ground colour combinations for submission to Louis XV, who had ordered a large service (the first delivery of which was made on 24th December 1753). The pigment used for this ground colour was Venetian aquamarine, or aigue marine de Venise, produced from crushed tinted-blue-glass; the ground colour was unstable when fired. For a discussion of this, see Tamara Préaud and Antoine d'Albis, La Porcelaine de Vincennes (Paris, 1991), p. 217. A. d'Albis has suggested that the unusually light colour of the ground is explained by the application of only one layer of colour. In order for the gilding to work on this ground, it was necessary to apply more layers than usual, giving the gilding a dazzling richness. The form of this piece was experimental too, and was soon replaced by a simpler one. A gold-mounted ewer and cover with a slightly different experimental pale-blue ground was sold by Christie's, New York, on 5 May 1999, lot 30.
Christie's gratefully acknowledge the assitance of Antoine d'Albis in the preparation of this footnote.