A PAIR OF SEVRES BLEU CELESTE COFFEE CANS FROM THE BARIATINSKII SERVICE (GOBELET 'LITRON' ET SOUCOUPE, 3EME GRANDEUR)

The present pair of cups and saucers are from a service ordered by the Russian ambassador to Versaille, Prince Ivan Sergeevich Bariantinskii (1773-1785). One of only two armorial services commissioned from the Sèvres factory during the French Revolution, where a premium for such pieces was necessarily set from abroad, the service consisted of twenty-four cups and saucers. The orginal order is recorded in the sale archives at Sèvres as 'Un service fond bleu céleste, armoiries (Mme. Cresp à Saint Petersbourg, 18.384 L(ivres)'. The service, itself, was delivered to Prince Bariantinskii in 1794. Clearly pleased, the Prince would later serve as a liason in the commission of Catherine the Great's own celebrated service.

Cf. A Taste for Splendor: Treasure from the Hillwood Museum, pg.168, pl. 74 for an illustration and further discussion of the service; Chavagnac and Grollier, Histoire des manufactures française de porcelaine, Paris, 1906, p. 222.

Philippe Castel, active at Sèvres as a painter of flowers, birds and landscapes, 1771-1797.