Sèvres - Lot 125

Sèvres Hard porcelain ice-cup tray with footed saucer, decorated in blue, red and gold in the Imari style with flowers and birds on terraces in reserves on a blue background. Marked: LL interlaced, no letter-date, Weydinger gilder's mark. 18th century. D. 24 cm. Chips. Provenance : Japan service for Prince Cardinal Giuseppe Doria Pamphili, Secretary of State and Nuncio to Pope Pius VI, delivered May 12, 1780. Four services whose decoration is described as "Japon" were sold by the Sèvres manufactory in the 18th century. One was delivered to Queen Marie-Antoinette in December 1777, another to Voltaire's niece Madame Denis in October 1778. The third for Cardinal de Rohan in February 1779, and the last for Prince Cardinal Giuseppe Doria Pamphili, Secretary of State to Pope Pius VI, in May 1780. Neither Mme Denis's service nor that delivered to Marie Antoinette featured footed saucers. The service for Cardinal de Rohan-Guémenée included 12 ice cups and two trays for said ice cups, each priced at 60 livres. David Peters points out that these trays were Bouret trays, not footed saucers. saucers. In contrast, the service for Prince Cardinal Giuseppe Doria Pamphili delivered in May 1780 included 10 footed saucers at 78 livres each. A similarly decorated plate from one of these services is in the Cité de la Céramique, (Catalogue de l'exposition MarieAntoinette, 15 mars-30 juin 2008, Paris, n° 144, p. 204, see also David Peters, Sèvres Plates and Services of the 18th Century, vol. III, nos. 77-7, 78-4, 79-1 and 80-2). A terrine from a Japanese service is now in the Musée de Sèvres, and another recently went on sale (Pescheteau-Badin, December 10, 2024, lot 275).