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Tray for a Dejeuner: C.20.1-1961

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Object information

Current Location: Gallery 26 (Lower Marlay)

Titles

Tray for a Dejeuner

Maker(s)

Factory: Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Painter: Vielliard, André-Vincent
Teniers, David II (In the style of)

Entities

  • Tray
  • Factory name: plateau à tiroir à pieds

Categories

Description

Soft-paste porcelain tray, decorated with an underglaze blue ground reserves painted in enamels with genre scenes in the style of Teniers, and gilding. Part of a dejeuner.

Soft-paste porcelain, moulded, decorated with underglaze bleu lapis ground, painting overglaze in blue, several shades of green, dark yellow, pink, red, pale purple, and several shades of brown enamels, and gilding. Rectangular tray with shallow, sloping sides, standing on four short, tapering feet. There is a suspension hole in the base in the middle of the lower edge. The sides have a bleu lapis ground caillouté in gold, with a gold scroll and diaper motif in each corner. The flat area is white pointillé in gold. In the centre there is an oval reserve with an elaborate frame, comprising scrolls, rocaille shells and two panels of two different trellis diaper pattenrs, and painted in polychrome with a genre scene in the style of Teniers. Two men and two women are seated at a table in front of a cottage, while a standing man behind them holds out a jug for refilling to a woman standing inside the house. There are doves and a dovecote on the left-hand wall of the cottage and a landscape behind it. A narrow gold line and a wider gold line run round the edge of the flat area, and there is a gold band over the upper edge, dentilated on the exterior.

Part of a dejeuner with a milk jug, cup and saucer, and covered sugar basin

Notes

History note: Alfred Hill; sold by Sotheby's, 15 May 1942, Valuable Continental and English Porcelain, Fine Old English Clocks and Furniture...The Property of Alfred Hill, (decd), p. 14, lot 64; acquired by Mallett's for £58; Louis Colville Gray Clarke, MA, Leckhampton, Cambridge

Legal notes

L.C.G. Clarke Bequest, 1960

Measurements and weight

Height: 3.6 cm
Length: 24.6 cm
Width: 17.5 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
Production date: AD 1759 : The tray bears the date letter for 1759

Note

Genre scenes in the style of David Teniers the Younger derived from, or inspired by prints by Jacques-Phlippe Lebas, were very popular as decoration on Sèvres during the 1760s (see Documentation, Carey, 2007). This scene also occurs on vases painted between 1759 and 1762 in the Royal Collection, the Wallace Collection, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. See Documentation.

This drawer-like tray form with little tapering feet, known as a plateau tiroir appears in the factory’s inventory in 1756, when four were mentioned as awaiting glazing, and a version with pierced sides, described as à jour was introduced in 1757. It was made in two sizes, of which this is the first and largest size. The trays were usually sold with tea things, and this is accompanied by a matching cup and saucer, milk jug, and sugar bowl and cover. The fullest coverage of the early documentary evidence for this form in the Kiln Books in the Institute de France, and sales records is given by Roth and Le Corbeiller (see Documentation 2000).

School or Style

Rococo

People, subjects and objects depicted

Components of the work

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

Materials used in production

presumed lead-glaze Lead-glaze
Soft-paste porcelain

Techniques used in production

Moulding : Soft-paste porcelain moulded, and decorated with an underglaze bleu lapis ground, painting overglaze in blue, several shades of green, dark yellow, pink, red, pale purple, and several shades of brown enamels, and gilding
Lead-glazing

Inscription or legends present

  • Text: interlaced Ls enclosing G with a dot below the Ls
  • Location: On base
  • Method of creation: Painted in blue enamel
  • Type: Factory mark
  • Text: a horizontal line above the mark, with three evenly dispersed dots
  • Location: On base
  • Method of creation: Painted in blue enamel
  • Type: Painter's mark
  • Text: 6c
  • Location: On base
  • Method of creation: Incised
  • Type: Incised mark

Inscription present: rectangular white paper label with cut corners, now discoloured brownish

  • Text: SEVRES, printed, Painter Viellard/Date 1759, handwritten
  • Location: On base
  • Method of creation: Printed in black and hand-written in faded black ink
  • Type: Label

Inscription present: rectangular white paper label, now discoloured brownish

  • Text: Sucrier & cover/Cream jug (? )/Cup & saucer.
  • Location: On base
  • Method of creation: Hand-written in faded black ink
  • Type: Label

References and bibliographic entries

Identification numbers

Accession number: C.20.1-1961
Primary reference Number: 93555
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Tuesday 25 February 2020 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) "Tray for a Dejeuner" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/93555 Accessed: 2024-11-21 18:44:28

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{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/93555 |title=Tray for a Dejeuner |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-21 18:44:28|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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