CIRCA 1765-80, BLUE INTERLACED LL MARK, INDISTINCT PAINTER'S MARK, POSSIBLY FOR DE LAROCHE

The present plate is similarly decorated to those supplied to the Court at Parma through its agent M. Bonnet on 14 May 1765. 148 plates from this dessert service are retained at the Palais du Quirinal, Rome. A plate with date letter M for 1765 and painter's mark for Thévenet is in the British Museum (museum no. 1899,1006.9) and several pairs and small groups of plates of the same type, dating to the 1770s and 1780s, have appeared on the market in recent years. Given the number of examples extant made nearly twenty years after the original service, there was either a large order for supplementary pieces to this service or, more likely, a second service made with similar decoration.