BLUE INTERLACED L MARKS ENCLOSING DATE LETTER C FOR 1755-1756, PAINTER'S MARK Y PERHAPS FOR YVERNAL, INCISED 3 AND Z TO ONE, 3 AND R TO THE OTHER

A popular model probably designed by Jean-Claude Duplessis père, the vase 'oreilles' was first introduced in 1754. Still in production in 1791, it is recorded as having six sizes, although examples are known only in five of which the present pair is an example of the smallest. Depending on size and decoration, prices varied between 840 livres for the largest size painted with putti on a ground color to 9 livres for a biscuiut vase of the same size as the present pair.
See Rosalind Savill, The Wallace Collection - Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, 1988, vol. 1, pp. 135-147 for a discussion of the model, illustrations of the drawing and plaster for it, and a listing of extant examples, including the larger pair offered as lot 56 in the present sale.