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Gobelet à la reine et soucoupe
Factory: Vincennes Porcelain Manufactory
Soft-paste porcelain cup and saucer, decorated with an underglaze blue ground, reserves painted in enamels with two flying birds, and gilding
Soft-paste porcelain decorated with an underglaze bleu lapis ground, painting in pale blue, sage green, yellow, puce, pale purple, and grey enamels, and gilding. The base of both pieces is unglazed. The cup is of a truncated cone shape with a flat base, and harp-shaped handle. The circular saucer has deep sloping sides, a flat centre, amd a small hole for suspension in the base. Both pieces have a bleu lapis ground. On the cup there are two heart-shaped reserves framed by gold trellis work, flowers and foliage with finely tooled details, and painted in polychrome with two flying birds, one of which in one reserve, carries a branch in its beak. The saucer has a circular reserve, similarly framed and painted in polychrome with two flying birds, one carrying a branch in its beak. There are dentilated gold bands round the rim of the saucer, round the foot and rim of the cup, and lines of gilding down the sides of the handle, which also has paired leaves, a flower head, a husk, and several dots down its back. A pair with C.10.2 & A-1961
History note: Acquired by Louis C.G. Clarke, MA, LL.D. (2 May 1881- 13 December 1960) Cambridge, before October 1948
Louis C.G. Clarke Bequest, 1960
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1961-04-27) by Clarke, Louis Colville Gray
18th Century, Mid#
Louis XV
Production date:
AD 1754
: The cup and saucer bear the date letter A formerly thought to be for 1753 or 1753-4, although the lower part of the letter has been lost on the latter. See Documentation, Peters, 2014, for the proposal that A indicated 1754.
The gobelet à la Reine was being made before 1 October 1752 when twelve moulds for the cup and twelve for the saucer valued at 9 livres were listed in the inven¬tory of the factory’s stock. A second size had been introduced by July 7 1753 when mentioned in the glost firing records. Earlier the same form appears to have been known as a gobelet à cuvier, i.e. tub-shaped and its profile was similar to a gobelet à lait, the difference probably being that the latter had a cover, and could have two handles (see C.20 & A & B-1980). The cup was probably used as a breakfast cup and the factory's records indicate that they were made in large numbers. Many examples decorated with a bleu lapis ground and reserves decorated with coloured birds are mentioned at various prices in the sales records of 1753 to 1754 when this set was decorated. The prices mentioned were 36, 42, and 48 livres, with one purchased for the duc de Duras at 60 livres. When size was mentioned, the first size cost 48 livres and the second 42 livres. It has been suggested that the y which usually occurs well away from the factory mark on pieces dating from about 1752-8, might be the mark of Pierre-François Yvernel who worked for the factory from 1750-9. (See Eriksen and de Bellaigue, 1987, p. 154, chart, no. 135, and p. 167, no. 135. But there is no evidence to confirm this. After 1758 a Y or y was used by Edme-François Bouillat, usually to the right of the factory mark. The incised mark '4' occurs on Vincennes and Sèvres porcelain in either an open or a closed form, (here it is almost closed) frequently from 1753. It also occurs on C.14 & A & B-1961, covered cup and saucer, 1756 and C.20B-1961, jug, 1759.
Ground
composed of
underglaze blue ground
( bleu lapis)
Decoration
composed of
enamels
( pale blue, sage green, yellow, puce, mauve, and grey)
gold
Saucer
Diameter 16.2 cm
Height 3.7 cm
Cup Rim
Diameter 7.9 cm
Cup
Height 7.7 cm
Width 10.7 cm
Handle
Lead-glaze
Soft-paste porcelain
Inscription present: the A has lost its lower half on the saucer
Inscription present: underlined
Accession number: C.10.1 & A-1961
Primary reference Number: 71114
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
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IIIF Manifest
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Gobelet à la reine et soucoupe" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/71114 Accessed: 2024-12-18 13:45:43
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{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/71114
|title=Gobelet à la reine et soucoupe
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-18 13:45:43|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa23/C_10_1_20_26_20A_1961.jpg"
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<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Gobelet à la reine et soucoupe</figcaption>
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