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Plateau carré à jour: C.15-1961

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Object information

Current Location: Gallery 26 (Lower Marlay)

Titles

Plateau carré à jour

Maker(s)

Factory: Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory

Entities

  • Tray
  • Factory name: plateau carré à jour

Categories

Description

Soft-paste porcelain tray with pierced sides, decorated with rose ground colour, painting in polychrome enamels, and gilding. The central quatrefoil is painted with a landscape and two birds, surrounded by a pink trellis design with flowers in the spaces.

Soft-paste porcelain, moulded, pierced and decorated with pink (rose) ground colour, painting in blue, green, yellow dark pink, red,, pale purple and brown enamels, and gilding. Square with sloping sides pierced with alternating scrolls and lilies. The base is slightly recessed and has a suspension hole in the footring. The centre quatrefoil reserve is painted with a landscape and two birds, one perched on the a branch of a tree, and the other on the ground. The reserve has a broad quatrefoil rose ground frame edged by gold scrolls. The rest of the flat area is decorated with a trellis in rose ground outlined in gold with rose four-petalled flowers at the intersections, and polychrome flowers and leaves in the spaces of the trellis. The sides have a rose ground on the interior, and the pierced design is outlined in gold on the interior and exterior. Thebase has a rose band and a gold band round its edge.

Notes

History note: Madame Dhainaut, Paris; sold Sotheby's, 10 December, 1936, Catalogue of a Very Choice Collection of Works of Art, The Property of Madame Dhainaut of Paris, p. 19, lot 72; Louis C.G. Clarke, MA, LL.D.,(1881-1960), Leckhampton, Cambridge

Legal notes

L.C.G. Clarke Bequest, 1960

Measurements and weight

Height: 2.8 cm
Length: 14.9 cm
Width: 14.9 cm

Place(s) associated

  • Sèvres ⪼ France

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1961-04-27) by Clarke, Louis Colville Gray

Dating

18th Century, Mid#
Louis XV
1758 CE - 1759 CE

Note

The small square tray described as a plateau carré was in production by 1753, and was made in three sizes. The first recorded sale of a plateau carre ‘ a jour’with pierced sides was made to the marchand-mercier, Lazare Duvaux between July 1757 and January 1758. This is the first size, and may have been sold with a cup or a cup and saucer as a dejeuner. These have rarely survived together.The Reverend William Cole, who was in Paris in 1765, went with Horace Walpole to Poirier's shop where the latter paid '10 Louis or Guineas for a single Coffee Cup, Saucer, & a little square Sort of soucoupe, or under-Saucer, to set them on; they were indeed the highest finished Things of the Kind that can be conceived: perfect Jewels that deserve to be set in gold Frames to be admired & looked at, but never to be used for Fear of breaking them.' Rose grounds were first recorded in 1758 but appear on pieces with date letters for 1757, and 1756. They were popular until 1762 and then again between 1772-5. The pink trellis pattern on this tray was described by the factory as ‘rose mosaique’.

This tray does not bear a painter's mark but the landscape in the centre is similar in style to one on a rectangular tray with a different rose trellis ground, and date letter for 1757-8, painted by Edmé Goméry, now in the British Museum (See Documentation, Sotheby's 10 December, 1936, and Dawson 1994)

School or Style

Rococo

People, subjects and objects depicted

Components of the work

Decoration composed of enamels ( blue, green, yellow dark pink, red,, pale purple and brown) ground colour ( rose) gold
Sides

Materials used in production

Lead-glaze
Soft-paste porcelain

Techniques used in production

Moulding : Soft-paste porcelain, moulded pierced, and decorated overglaze with pink (rose) ground colour, painting in blue, green, yellow dark pink, red,, pale purple and brown enamels, and gilding
Lead-glazing

Inscription or legends present

Inscription present: interlaced L's enclosing F

  • Location: On base
  • Method of creation: Painted in blue enamel
  • Type: Factory mark
  • Text: '6c' and script 'A'
  • Location: On base
  • Method of creation: Incised
  • Type: Mark
  • Text: SEVRES [printed] 1758 [hand-written]
  • Location: On base
  • Method of creation: Printed in black and hand-written in faded black ink
  • Type: Label

References and bibliographic entries

Identification numbers

Accession number: C.15-1961
Primary reference Number: 93548
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Tuesday 5 January 2021 Last processed: Wednesday 13 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Plateau carré à jour" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/93548 Accessed: 2024-03-28 15:21:04

Citation for Wikipedia

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{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/93548 |title=Plateau carré à jour |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-03-28 15:21:04|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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