Sèvres - Lot 223

Sèvres A Parma service soft-paste porcelain palm plate with polychrome decoration in the center of a group of flowers and fruit and on the wing of birds on a terrace in three reserves surrounded by gold palms and flowers on a lapis blue ground. Marked : LL interlaced, letter-date M for 1765, painter's mark Jacques-François Micaud. 18th century, 1765. D. 24.5 cm. Minor gold wear, a chip on the heel. Provenance : Philippe, Duke of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla (1720-1765). His son, Ferdinand 1st, Duke of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla (1751-1802) This plate comes from the service produced by the Manufacture de Sèvres in 1765 for the Duke of Parma. This service is simply referred to as lapis in the Sèvres factory archives. Several plates with the same decoration, dated with the letter E for 1758, are listed, suggesting that they may have been acquired at this date by Louis XVI's eldest daughter. date by Louis XV's eldest daughter, Elisabeth, Madame Infante, wife of Infant Philippe of Spain, Duke of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, second son of Philip V of Spain and Elisabeth Farnese. The 1765 service, comprising 36 plates at 42 livres each, is mentioned in the sales registers of the Sèvres factory on April 12, 1765 (Arch. Sèvres, Vy4 f° 36r), delivered to an anonymous buyer. However, a 12% reduction in the price suggests that it was most certainly delivered to a marchand-mercier, undoubtedly Jean-Dominique Testard, and possibly also Claude Bonnet, agent of the Court of Parma and payer of rents. Mention of the service in the inventory of "l'Office et Gobelet de S.A.R. le 15 octobre 1768" kept in the archives of the Duchy of Parma enables us to identify its recipient. The document notes the presence of "Vincennes blue porcelain with gold rim", with various mentions of supplements in the margin. The Sèvres factory delivered a large number of supplements to the Testard merchant on February 4, 1769, including 24 plates. Numerous other pieces from this service can be found in the collections of the Palazzo Pitti in Florence and the Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome. Rome. For a study of this service, see David Peters, Sèvres Plates and Services of the 18th century, vol II, Little Berkhamsted, no. 65-02, pp. 365-367 and no. 69-1, pp. 407-409.