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Lot Essay
In 1770, Madame du Barry, Louis XV’s last mistress, ordered a large porcelain service from Sèvres comprising 322 pieces. It was decorated with DB cyphers but the borders had pendant floral garlands divided by antique vases, differing from those on the present lot. The service was delivered to her in August 1771.
Surviving archival evidence at Sèvres suggests that two years later, in 1773, Sèvres began work on another service for the comtesse du Barry. This also had central DB cyphers, but this time the borders were very similar to those on a service produced in the same year (1773) for Queen Maria Carolina Luisa, wife of Ferdinando IV, King of Naples and the Two Sicilies. Queen Maria Carolina’s service had CL cyphers (she was known as Charlotte-Louise in France),1 and the borders of her service are very similar to those of the present lot, with baskets of flowers, garlands of laurel and panels painted with putti.
The archives at Sèvres do not record a service of this design being completed for Madame du Barry. Only a small number of plates of this design appear to have been made, and work on the service appears to have stopped. By the end of 1773, the pieces which were only partially decorated were sent to storage in the Magazin de Blanc (a store which was usually used for wares which were still undecorated). At a later date they were sold off and subsequently the decoration on these pieces was ‘completed’ (in slightly varying ways) in the 19th century.2 It is not clear why production was halted. A few months later, in May 1774, Louis XV died and Madame du Barry, who was deeply unpopular with the new Queen Marie-Antoinette (among others), was banished to a convent at the Abbey du Pont-aux-Dames. She remained there for a year before being allowed to leave, and eventually she was able to return to Château de Louveciennes, which Louis XV had given to her for her use in 1769. Madame du Barry was at Louveciennes when she was arrested on 22nd September 1793.
An inventory (dated 18th January 1795) of Madame du Barry’s chattels seized from Louveciennes records her 1771 service (described as service fond blanc à guirlandes et petites vases avec le chiffre DB). Another small service was described as service fond bleu et blanc avec médaillons representant des Amours. At first sight this description could relate to the design of the present service, but the inventory does not mention chiffre DB, and David Peters has identified it as a service listed in the archives which was the third service which the comtesse du Barry acquired.3
As the present service bears date letters for 1771, two years before the second DB cypher du Barry service was begun, it cannot belong to the category of unfinished pieces which were stored and recorded in the Magazin de Blanc on 1st January 1774. Instead, the present group is composed of largely 18th century porcelain blanks which have been decorated in the 19th century (the group may include 18th century pieces which formerly had simple decoration which was removed and then replaced with grander decoration in the 19th century).4 In his definitive work on 18th century Sèvres services, David Peters notes that the surviving pieces associated with this service fall into three categories; assiettes unies with enamel and gilded decoration applied at Sèvres in the 18th century, assiettes unies entirely (or partly) with 18th century Sèvres enamel decoration, but with later 19th century gilded decoration, and assiettes unies and other service forms with ‘entirely or probably entirely’ 19th century enamel and gilded decoration.5 The present lot falls into the latter category, where Peters notes the group as belonging to a private Parisian collection.
Rothschild Family archives indicate that the service was from la Collection de Baronne Salomon de Rothschild, so it must presumably have been acquired by Adèle Hannah Charlotte (1843-1922), who married Baron Salomon James de Rothschild (1835-1864) in 1862. It is not known when the baroness acquired it, but it is interesting to note that the three seaux of the same type which were in the Sotheby’s Mentmore sale of May 1977 had been at Mentmore since at least 1883.6 As Mentmore was a Rothschild house, it is possible that those pieces were once part of the present service. Other pieces which have surfaced on the market include a pair of seaux, and a smaller seau, from the collection of Brigadier-General R.J. Cooper by descent from his maternal grandfather, Edward Wheler Mills (1801-1865), which were sold by Christie’s on 30th October 1947, lot 53.
1. Maria Carolina Luisa was born Archduchess of Austria and was the sister of Queen Marie Antoinette.
2. David Peters, Sèvres Plates and Services of the 18th Century, Little Berkhamsted, 2005, Vol. II, p. 497, where Peters notes that 48 plates and 2 moutardiers et plateau were recorded in the 1st January 1774 inventory of the Magazin de Blanc. ‘The rest of the assiettes, of which there were several hundred, in the Magazin de Blanc were evidently unpainted’.
3. Peters, ibid., 2005, Vol. II, no. 7-5, p. 435. Of pieces from this service to surface on the market, the most recent is a seau à bouteille which was sold by Christie’s New York on 19th May 2004, lot 70.
4. One piece bears what appears to be a genuine interlaced L cipher enclosing a date letter S above what appears to be a genuine LB mark for Jean-Nicolas Le Bel, le jeune (later père), who was a painter of flowers at Sèvres from 1765 to 1793, indicating that decoration originally applied by this painter was removed and replaced with later decoration. Two other pieces in the present lot bear painter’s marks for Jean-Baptiste Tandart l’aîné, who was also a flower painter at Sèvres from 1754 to 1800 (it is unclear as to whether these marks are genuine or not).
5. Peters, ibid., 2005, Vol. II, p. 498.
6. Lot 2074, a seau à demi-bouteille (which was subsequently re-sold by Sotheby’s New York in 1985, lot 228), and lot 2075, a pair of seaux à demi-bouteille.
Surviving archival evidence at Sèvres suggests that two years later, in 1773, Sèvres began work on another service for the comtesse du Barry. This also had central DB cyphers, but this time the borders were very similar to those on a service produced in the same year (1773) for Queen Maria Carolina Luisa, wife of Ferdinando IV, King of Naples and the Two Sicilies. Queen Maria Carolina’s service had CL cyphers (she was known as Charlotte-Louise in France),1 and the borders of her service are very similar to those of the present lot, with baskets of flowers, garlands of laurel and panels painted with putti.
The archives at Sèvres do not record a service of this design being completed for Madame du Barry. Only a small number of plates of this design appear to have been made, and work on the service appears to have stopped. By the end of 1773, the pieces which were only partially decorated were sent to storage in the Magazin de Blanc (a store which was usually used for wares which were still undecorated). At a later date they were sold off and subsequently the decoration on these pieces was ‘completed’ (in slightly varying ways) in the 19th century.2 It is not clear why production was halted. A few months later, in May 1774, Louis XV died and Madame du Barry, who was deeply unpopular with the new Queen Marie-Antoinette (among others), was banished to a convent at the Abbey du Pont-aux-Dames. She remained there for a year before being allowed to leave, and eventually she was able to return to Château de Louveciennes, which Louis XV had given to her for her use in 1769. Madame du Barry was at Louveciennes when she was arrested on 22nd September 1793.
An inventory (dated 18th January 1795) of Madame du Barry’s chattels seized from Louveciennes records her 1771 service (described as service fond blanc à guirlandes et petites vases avec le chiffre DB). Another small service was described as service fond bleu et blanc avec médaillons representant des Amours. At first sight this description could relate to the design of the present service, but the inventory does not mention chiffre DB, and David Peters has identified it as a service listed in the archives which was the third service which the comtesse du Barry acquired.3
As the present service bears date letters for 1771, two years before the second DB cypher du Barry service was begun, it cannot belong to the category of unfinished pieces which were stored and recorded in the Magazin de Blanc on 1st January 1774. Instead, the present group is composed of largely 18th century porcelain blanks which have been decorated in the 19th century (the group may include 18th century pieces which formerly had simple decoration which was removed and then replaced with grander decoration in the 19th century).4 In his definitive work on 18th century Sèvres services, David Peters notes that the surviving pieces associated with this service fall into three categories; assiettes unies with enamel and gilded decoration applied at Sèvres in the 18th century, assiettes unies entirely (or partly) with 18th century Sèvres enamel decoration, but with later 19th century gilded decoration, and assiettes unies and other service forms with ‘entirely or probably entirely’ 19th century enamel and gilded decoration.5 The present lot falls into the latter category, where Peters notes the group as belonging to a private Parisian collection.
Rothschild Family archives indicate that the service was from la Collection de Baronne Salomon de Rothschild, so it must presumably have been acquired by Adèle Hannah Charlotte (1843-1922), who married Baron Salomon James de Rothschild (1835-1864) in 1862. It is not known when the baroness acquired it, but it is interesting to note that the three seaux of the same type which were in the Sotheby’s Mentmore sale of May 1977 had been at Mentmore since at least 1883.6 As Mentmore was a Rothschild house, it is possible that those pieces were once part of the present service. Other pieces which have surfaced on the market include a pair of seaux, and a smaller seau, from the collection of Brigadier-General R.J. Cooper by descent from his maternal grandfather, Edward Wheler Mills (1801-1865), which were sold by Christie’s on 30th October 1947, lot 53.
1. Maria Carolina Luisa was born Archduchess of Austria and was the sister of Queen Marie Antoinette.
2. David Peters, Sèvres Plates and Services of the 18th Century, Little Berkhamsted, 2005, Vol. II, p. 497, where Peters notes that 48 plates and 2 moutardiers et plateau were recorded in the 1st January 1774 inventory of the Magazin de Blanc. ‘The rest of the assiettes, of which there were several hundred, in the Magazin de Blanc were evidently unpainted’.
3. Peters, ibid., 2005, Vol. II, no. 7-5, p. 435. Of pieces from this service to surface on the market, the most recent is a seau à bouteille which was sold by Christie’s New York on 19th May 2004, lot 70.
4. One piece bears what appears to be a genuine interlaced L cipher enclosing a date letter S above what appears to be a genuine LB mark for Jean-Nicolas Le Bel, le jeune (later père), who was a painter of flowers at Sèvres from 1765 to 1793, indicating that decoration originally applied by this painter was removed and replaced with later decoration. Two other pieces in the present lot bear painter’s marks for Jean-Baptiste Tandart l’aîné, who was also a flower painter at Sèvres from 1754 to 1800 (it is unclear as to whether these marks are genuine or not).
5. Peters, ibid., 2005, Vol. II, p. 498.
6. Lot 2074, a seau à demi-bouteille (which was subsequently re-sold by Sotheby’s New York in 1985, lot 228), and lot 2075, a pair of seaux à demi-bouteille.