CIRCA 1805, RED STENCILLED M.IMP.LE/DE SEVRES ABOVE AN ARROWHEAD MARK AND INCISED MARKS TO BOTH, ONE SIGNED DROLLING

These plates appear to be related to those included in the service Marli d'or, which was produced between 1805 and the restoration of the French monarchy in 1814. The most accomplished artists were employed to decorate the service with painted scenes; these included a variety of subjects including, landscapes, flowers, cameos and historical and genre scenes. Drolling, who decorated the example painted with a girl in the present lot (referred to in the Sèvres archives as 'La Cuisinière'), was among those artists who worked on the service together with Georget, Swebach, Sauvage, Develly, Tibault, Parant and Boquet. However, the two plates in this lot feature scale and diamond pattern gilt borders rather than palmette borders used to decorate the Marli d'or plates, suggesting that they may have been intended as experimental or trial pieces related to the service, or that they may have formed part of another service bearing similar subject matter. When enough pieces of the Marli d'or service had been completed they were used to form two services, the first of which was given by Napoleon as a gift to King Friedrich August I of Saxony in 1809 and the second to Prince Schwarzenberg, the Austrian ambassador, in 1812. See Camille Leprince et al., Napoléon Ier & la Manufacture de Sèvres, L’art de la Porcelaine au service de l’Empire, Paris, 2016, p. 239 for an illustration of seven plates from the service and further discussion of the type.

The subject of the example featuring architectural ornaments in this lot is after a design by Percier et Fontaine, taken from Recueil de décorations intérieurs composé par Percier et Fontainte et exécuté sur leurs Dessins, Paris, 1801, pl. 16, 2 'Peintures exécutées dans les Panneaux dans la Chambre du Citoyen V.'