These images are provided for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-ND). To license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who will discuss fees, terms and waivers.
Download this imageCreative commons explained - what it means, how you can use our's and other people's content.
Gobelet litron et soucoupe
Factory: Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Soft-paste porcelain cup and saucer, with a pink ground, painted in enamels with linked oval garlands of green leaves and scarlet berries, creating blind oval reserves, and gilded.
Soft-paste porcelain painted decorated with a pink pointillé ground, painting in pink and green enamels, and gilding. Cylindrical cup with ear-shaped handle. Circular saucer with flat central area and sloping sides. There is a hole in the footring of each piece. Both pieces have a pink ground with regularly spaced small white circles surrounded by darker pink dots. The cup has four oval reserves linked by reserved curved bands outlined in gold, containing linked oval garlands of green leaves and scarlet berries. There are bands of gilding round the foot and rim, and lines of gilding down the sides of the handle which also has three husks, a dot and a stroke down its back.The saucer has a similar ground. In the centre it has a circular reserve framed by a band of gilding and containing a wreath of green leaves and scarlet berries. The sides and part of the flat area have seven linked oval reserves decorated en suite with the four on the cup. There is a band of gilding round the rim.
History note: Unknown before testator
L.C.G. Clarke Bequest, 1960
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1960) by Clarke, Louis Colville Gray
18th Century, Mid#
Louis XV
Circa
1765
CE
-
1770
CE
The gobelet litron was named after a cubic measure, the litron, which was normally made of wood, and was used for dry stuffs, such as corn and peas. Its size in Paris had been defined in 1670 as the equivalent of 9.45 cm high and 10.15 in diameter in pouces and lignes, which was larger than the largest of the porcelain cups. The first size of gobelet litron had been introduced at Vincennes before October 1752 when it was mentioned in an inventory of stock, but was probably being made earlier (records are lacking) The second and third sizes followed in 1753, and the fourth and fifth in 1757. They could be fitted with one of seven different handle forms. A drawing in the archives at Sèvres is dated 19 February 1753 (MNS, R1, liasse 2, dossier 2, No. 6bis) They were supplied singly, singly with a plateau carré, in ’harlequin’ sets, or as part of matching dejeuner.
This is a gobelet litron of the 3rd size with Savill’s handle C. This type of decoration was executed in both pink and blue, with different motifs in the reserves (see documentation, Dauterman, 1970).
Decoration
composed of
enamels
gold
Saucer
Diameter 12.1 cm
Cup Rim
Diameter 5.6 cm
Saycer
Height 3.1 cm
Cup
Height 5.9 cm
Width 7.9 cm
Handle
Lead-glaze
Soft-paste porcelain
Inscription present: almost illegible on cup
Accession number: C.30 & A-1961
Primary reference Number: 74298
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:
Mirador deep zoom
IIIF Manifest
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Gobelet litron et soucoupe" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/74298 Accessed: 2024-11-15 22:31:09
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/74298
|title=Gobelet litron et soucoupe
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-15 22:31:09|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:
https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-74298
To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:
<div class="text-center">
<figure class="figure">
<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa23/C_30_20_26_20A_1961.jpg"
alt="Gobelet litron et soucoupe"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Gobelet litron et soucoupe</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
Updates about future exhibitions and displays, family activities, virtual events & news. You'll be the first to know...
