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Lot Essay
The Sèvres manufacture drew inspiration for this elaborate chinoiserie service from the Sall collection of Chinese objects which had been dispersed in Paris in 1826. The collection included a number of white openwork pieces of Chinese porcelain which fascinated the director of the Sèvres factory, Alexandre Brongniart. The déjeuner 'chinois reticulé' remains one of the most technically challenging and innovative designs to have been produced at Sèvres by the sculptor and modeller Hyacinthe Régnier under Brongniart's directorship. Brongniart took great interest in the development of the design of this service. He presented it at several exhibitions at the factory during a number of stages in its manufacture. The first pieces were shown at a factory exhibition in 1832 and by 1838 the whole service, complete with pierced tray, was unveiled. For a preparatory drawing showing the coffee-pot and its cover, now in the archives of the Manufacture de Sèvres, see Tamara Préaud, The Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory, Alexandre Brongniart and the Triumph of Art and Industry, 1800-1847, Singapore, 1997, p. 267, no.76.
Such Chinese reticulated services were very popular and Queen Marie-Amélie (1782-1866) ordered no fewer than seven, of which a similarly decorated déjeuner to the present example, is now in the Louvre, Paris (OA 11098-11111). See also the similar service from the collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, sold Christie's, Paris, 23 - 25 February 2009, lot 733.
Such Chinese reticulated services were very popular and Queen Marie-Amélie (1782-1866) ordered no fewer than seven, of which a similarly decorated déjeuner to the present example, is now in the Louvre, Paris (OA 11098-11111). See also the similar service from the collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, sold Christie's, Paris, 23 - 25 February 2009, lot 733.