MID-18TH CENTURY

A comparable model of a spaniel in Sèvres porcelain, on a stand by Jean-François Leleu, was sold at Christie's London, 23 June 1999, lot 10. This object was known to have been in the collection of Baronne Nathaniel de Rothschild in 1889. It is probable that the Sèvres dog was commissioned as a present, possibly for or by the duc de Choiseul who was a known patron of Leleu. Madame de Pompadour is also often linked to such models of spaniels, and another Sèvres dog lent by the Earl of Rosebery to the 'Three French Reigns' exhibition, 25 Park Lane, 1933, no. 134, had a label describing it as a portrait of the favourite dog of Marie Antoinette, found in the Queen's Chambre de Toilette at the Tuileries after 10 August 1792.