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Lot Essay
Only three octagonal tea sets are itemized in the sales records for the 1760's: one sold for 192 livres on 4 July 1764 with neither buyer nor decoration specified (S-CC Vy 4, fol. 13v) and two sold for 216 livres each in December 1765 to Louis XV, the decoration also unspecified (S-CC Vy 4, fol. 56). See L. Roth and C. Le Corbellier, French Eighteenth-Century Porcelain at the Wadsworth Atheneum The J. Pierpont Morgan Collection, Cambridge, 2000, cat. 91, pp. 193-195 for a discussion of the model, footnote 14 noting the above-mentioned references in the Sèvres archive.
The current location of all three déjeuner is known. However it is difficult to confirm which is which, their decoration being extremely close both in the richness of design and palette. They are:
The Déjeuner 'octagone' dated 1761 and painted by Charles-Louis Méreaud le jeune in the collection of Firle Place, Sussex, seat of the Gage vicountcy.
The Déjeuner 'octagone' dated 1764 and painted by Jacques-François-Micaud père in the collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford
The present example, dated 1764, its decoration also by Charles-Louis Méreaud le jeune, a painter specializing in flowers and patterns recorded at Sèvres 1756-1780.
Given the dating of these services, it is likely that the present example and that in the museum in Hartford are the two purchased by Louis XV in December 1765.
A Goblet à lait et corbeille carré from the collection of Belle and Jack Linsky now in the Metropolitan Museum was also painted by Méreaud in 1764, the frise coloré pattern identical to that on the present tea service, the blue border edging the rims variantly gilt (1982.60.180a,b.181).
The current location of all three déjeuner is known. However it is difficult to confirm which is which, their decoration being extremely close both in the richness of design and palette. They are:
The Déjeuner 'octagone' dated 1761 and painted by Charles-Louis Méreaud le jeune in the collection of Firle Place, Sussex, seat of the Gage vicountcy.
The Déjeuner 'octagone' dated 1764 and painted by Jacques-François-Micaud père in the collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford
The present example, dated 1764, its decoration also by Charles-Louis Méreaud le jeune, a painter specializing in flowers and patterns recorded at Sèvres 1756-1780.
Given the dating of these services, it is likely that the present example and that in the museum in Hartford are the two purchased by Louis XV in December 1765.
A Goblet à lait et corbeille carré from the collection of Belle and Jack Linsky now in the Metropolitan Museum was also painted by Méreaud in 1764, the frise coloré pattern identical to that on the present tea service, the blue border edging the rims variantly gilt (1982.60.180a,b.181).