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Plate from the Louis XVI Service
Factory:
Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Gilder:
Le Guay, Etienne-Henry
Painter:
Le Guay, Pierre-André
Engraver:
Gaillard, René
(After)
Painter:
Boucher, François
(After)
Soft-paste porcelain decorated with a bleu nouveau ground on the rim, painting in enamels and gilding: in the centre, 'Les Bacchantes Endormies' after Boucher; on the reserves on the rim, classical scenes.
Soft-paste porcelain decorated with an bleu nouveau ground, painting in blue, green, yellow, flesh pink, dark pink, pale purple, shades of brown, and grey enamels, and gilding. Circular, the rim scalloped with twelve alternately large and small arcs. The rim is slightly concave and the well has a shallow, concave sides. There is a suspension hole in the footring. In the centre, reserved on a white ground, is a circular panel, framed by a wide band of gilding tooled with bound laurel leaves and a narrow band of gilding tooled with straight lines outside it. The panel is painted with three voluptuous nymphs sleeping in the shelter of a purple hanging beside a tree, unaware of a satyr who peers at them over the hanging. The rim has a bleu nouveau ground decorated with gold scrolls, sprays of flowers and foliage, between which are four, elongated oval reserves framed by wide bands of gilding tooled with overlapping scales and crossed ribbons. The panels are painted in polychrome as follows: (1) Combat des Horiaces et Curiaces - A contest between two soldiers carrying swords and shields while another lies dead beside them and a fourth approaches from behind. (2) Cincinnatus - Two standing men, one wearing armour, invite Cincinnatus dressed as a farmer to come into the palace standing behind them. (3) Les Vestales portant le feu sacré - A young woman kneels in front of a brazier which is being carried by two priestesses. (4) Paul Emile appelle à l'armée - A seated man refuses to look at a young woman being presented to him by another man. All the figures wear classical dress. There are bands of gilding round the inner and outer edges of the rim, and the footring, and a band of gold laurel leaves and berries on the underside of the rim.
History note: Louis XVI; ......; Christie's, London, 9 February 1921, lot 157; D.M. Currie; Mrs Alastair Currie; sold Christie's, 13 June, 1946, Catalogue of Old French Furniture and Sèvres Porcelain . . ., p. 6, lot 35; sold to Partridge for 110 guineas on behalf of Louis C.G. Clarke
L.C.G. Clarke Bequest, 1960
Diameter: 23.9 cm
Height: 2.2 cm
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1960) by Clarke, Louis Colville Gray
18th Century, Late
Louis XVI
Production date:
probably
AD 1790
The central reserve is painted with 'Les Bacchantes Endormies' from an engraving by René Gaillard published in 1764. after the painting by François Boucher, Other sources used for the service were the Paris editions of Ovid's Métamorphoses (1767-71) and Abbé Fénelon's Les Aventures de Télémaque (1773).
The tooling of the frame of the central reserve is different from the other plates in the service which have imbricated disks
This plate formed part of the service ordered by Louis XVI for the dining room at Versailles in 1783. The service was the most costly ever made at Sèvres, and was manufactured in stages up to 1793, when it was not complete. The majority of the service is at Windsor Castle, having been acquired in 1811 and 1812 by George, Prince of Wales, the future George IV. For the locations of other components see Documentation, Bellaigue, 1986, and Peters, 2005.
Decoration
composed of
enamels
( blue, green, yellow, flesh pink, dark pink, pale purple, shades of brown, and grey)
gold
Gilding
Lead-glaze
Soft-paste porcelain
Moulding
: Soft-paste porcelain, moulded, and decorated with a bleu nouveau ground, reserves painted overglaze in blue, green, yellow, flesh pink, dark pink, pale purple, shades of brown, and grey enamels, and tooled gilding
Lead-glazing
Inscription present: in script
Accession number: C.55-1961
Primary reference Number: 93749
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) "Plate from the Louis XVI Service" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/93749 Accessed: 2024-11-08 00:59:28
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{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/93749
|title=Plate from the Louis XVI Service
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-08 00:59:28|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa23/C_55_1961_20_281_29.jpg"
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<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Plate from the Louis XVI Service</figcaption>
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