CIRCA 1770, BLUE AND PURPLE INTERLACED L’S AND DATE LETTER S MARKS, PAINTER’S MARKS FOR BOUILLAT, LE BEL PÈRE, LEVÉ, NÖEL

This shade of blue, called 'bleu Fallot', was first produced on a dinner service made as a diplomatic gift from Louis XV to the Austrian ambassador to France, Prince Starhemberg. A similar part service 'a palmes', made in 1769, is in the collection of the Dukes of Bedford, Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire. Two pots à jus and a plate from an identical service were sold from the Collection Charles-Otto Zieseniss Christie's, Paris, 6 December 2001, lots 218 and 219. See also L. Paredes Arend, Sèvres Porcelain at Hillwood, Washington, D.C., 1998, fig. 55, p. 81 for that museum's extensive holdings. Acquired by Marjorie Merriweather Post from the noted dealer J. Rochelle-Thomas, the latest service had belonged to J.P. Morgan (sold Christie's, London, 29 March 1944, lot 320).