The Sèvres 'grand service' yellow-ground ornithological part dessert-service 1791

A sevres yellow-ground ornithological part dessert-service 1791, blue interlaced Ls enclosing date letters OO, various painter's marks, the bird's names inscribed in blue and grey, incised marks. Painted with different species of birds after Buffon perched on branches in landscape vignettes within black line reserves, the yellow-ground borders enriched in black with lines enclosing scrolls and anthemion in the Etruscan style, gilt line rims, comprising:

A pair of hard-paste ice-cream coolers, covers and liners (seau à glace à trépied), of hemispherical form, on four rectangular legs with bronzed and gilt lion-mask and ring handle capitals and on paw feet resting on shaped cruciform bases, the covers with central handles formed as bronzed fountains (slight chipping)
A pair of hard-paste oval pierced two-handled baskets (corbeilles ovales ajourées), the gold rims and handles moulded and entwined in black (slight flaking to black enamel)
Three hard-paste circular pierced two-handled baskets (corbeilles rondes ajourées), the gold rims and handles moulded and entwined in black (one with handle and part of rim broken and repaired, flaking to black enamel)
Two circular shallow salad-bowls (saladiers 2e grandeur) (both with slight scratching to surface and minor wear to gilding)
Two circular dishes (compotiers rond) (one with rim chip, other with firing hole to exterior below rim, both with minor wear to rims)
Four square dishes (compotiers carrés) (one with rim chip and minute rim chip, two each with a minute rim chip)
Four shell-shaped dishes (compotiers coquilles) (one broken in several places and rivetted and with gilt rim worn, three with one area of wear to ground)
Twenty-five plates (assiettes unies) (two broken across and repaired, one with chip and piece broken from border, seven with rim chips, some with slight wear to gilt rims) 

The Property Of The Fifth Marquis Camden Will Trust
Estimate: £120,000-180,000

Literature: David Peters, Sevres Plates and Services of the 18th Century, Vol. IV, (Hertfordshire, 2005), p. 944.
Leonard Willoughby, 'The Marquess Camden's Collection at Bayham Abbey', part II, The Connoisseur, August 1908, pp. 239-247.

Notes: This service is probably part of the service supplied to the banker Georges Grand in 1792 for a client. As Grand was known to act as an intermediary for clients, according to other purchases which he made from the Sèvres factory, it is currently not known if the service was originally destined for himself or another recipient. For a discussion of this, see David Peters, Sevres Plates and Services of the 18th Century, Vol. IV, (Hertfordshire, 2005), p. 961, 92-10.

The service entered the Marquess of Camden's Collection at Bayham Abbey, although it is not known when it was acquired. See Leonard Willoughby, ibid (1908), pp. 239-247, where part of the service is illustrated. This illustrious political family descended from John Pratt, Lord Chief Justice 1718-1725, and his third son from his second marriage, Charles Pratt, served as Lord Chancellor from 1766-1770. In 1765 Charles was raised to the peerage as Baron Camden, and in 1786 he was created Viscount Bayham and Earl Camden. His son, John Pratt, was a politician and served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Lord President of the Council. In 1812 he was created Earl of Brecknock and Marquess Camden.

The birds on this service were copied directly from François-Nicolas Martinet's illustrations for Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon's ornithological publication, Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux, published in ten volumes between 1770-1786. These illustrations were frequently used at Sèvres as sources for decoration, and they were also used at Tournai (see lot 26). Each bird is copied from the illustration with the corresponding title inscribed on the underside of each piece (except one bird on a plate by Massy, which is not identified). It is interesting to note the different style of painting on the plates. The majority of the plates were painted by Étienne Evans (active at Sèvres from 1752 to 1800), whose style is quite different from Pierre Massy (active at Sèvres from 1779 to 1802), who painted three of the plates illustrated overleaf.

The form for the ice-cream coolers originally came from a design by the engineer and architect, Louis le Masson, for the Service Arabesque in about 1783. Le Masson was employed by the factory to develop new forms for the Arabesque service, having travelled to Italy from 1779 to 1781, he looked to Antiquity and Raphael's Vatican paintings for inspiration. The form for the ice-cream coolers was inspired by an Antique tripod incense burner, see John Whitehead, 'The Sèvres 'arabesque' service and the Vatican Loggia engravings', The French Porcelain Society Journal (2007), Vol. III., p. 160. Although the ice-cream cooler has four legs, it was described as à trépied because viewed from the front it appears to stand on three legs. The present service, like the Service Arabesque, was manufactured from a mixture of hard and soft paste porcelain. The pieces of form were created in hard paste because as a material it was better suited for their production.

For other services with this style of decoration produced by the factory, see David Peters ibid, Vol. V, Service lists 94-1, 94-12 and 95-4. For a plate of circa 1795 from the Norweb Collection in the Cleveland Museum of Art, see Henry Hawley, 'French Ceramics: The Norweb Collection', The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art (January 1984), Vol. 71, No. 1, p. 12. For another plate from a similar service in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, see Nina Birioukova and Natalia Kazakevitch, La porcelaine de Sèvres du XVIII siècle (St. Petersburg, 2005), p. 280. A pair of Seaux crennelés with the same type of decoration are in The J. Pierpont Morgan Collection see Linda H. Roth and Clare Le Corbeiller, French Eighteenth-Century Porcelain at the Wadsworth Atheneum (Wadsworth, 2000), pp. 287-290, No. 146. A penguin, also from Buffon's plate for Le Manchot, du Cap de Bonne-Espérance appears on a Sèvres blue-ground cup and saucer of similar date in the Wadsworth Atheneum, see Linda Roth and Clare Le Corbeiller, French Eighteenth-Century Porcelain at the Wadsworth Atheneum, The J. Pierpont Morgan Collection (Wadsworth, 2000), pp. 247-249, no. 128.

LIST OF MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS OF NAMES OF BIRDS

One ice-cream cooler with blue interlaced Ls mark, RB in black and named in blue with le Tarier, Petite Perr...le d'Isle St/Ih...s, Le Gobe-mouche rou.. de Cayenne, Ciep .. quelle. et..../rousses de .ag.. (three names partially erased)
The other ice-cream cooler with partly erased blue interlaced Ls mark, named in blue with Le Gea(?), Le .ass... rouge du Bresil, Couro.couá ventre rouge. de C..., Le ....ple du Canadne(?) (all partially erased)

Two oval baskets both with blue interlaced Ls mark and painter's mark for P-J-A Vielliard, one named in blue for pie-griêche rousse á têt (sic.) noire, du Sénégal. and the other with pie verd. de Goa.

Three circular baskets with blue and grey crowned interlaced Ls marks flanked by date letters oo and painter's marks y for E-F Bouillat, one with iron-red indistinct script N A ?, named in blue for Carouge du Méxique., Perdrix grise, femelle. and Petite Outarde ou Canne-petiere, mâle..

Two salad-bowls, one named in blue for Gros-Bec Bleu d'Amerique and Gros-Bec de la Louisiane, the other named in grey for ortolan de la Louisiane and Pigéon (sic.) de la Martinique

Two circular dishes, blue interlaced Ls marks enclosing date letters oo, painter's marks a dagger for Etienne Evans, one with two sprays of flowers and a leaf in blue and frieze painter's mark initials CT in black, probably for Mlle Tristant, the other with frieze painter's mark initials jd in black for Mme Boitel, one named in blue for Barbu à collier, de Cayenne. and the other for Gros-Bec, des indes.

Four square dishes, blue interlaced Ls marks enclosing date letters oo, three with painter's mark of a dagger for Etienne Evans, frieze painter's marks in black Sc for Sophie Binet to two dishes, CT probably for Mlle Tristant, to one dish and jd for Mme Boitel to another dish, named in blue for La Tourterelle., La Gorge-rouge, de la Caroline., La Gorge-rouge, femelle de la Carolin and Petite Perruche verte, de Cayenne., one with incised 23 and two with incised 24.

Four shell-shaped dishes, blue interlaced Ls marks enclosing date letters oo, painter's mark of a dagger for Etienne Evans, frieze painter's marks in black Sc for Sophie Binet to two dishes and CT probably for Mlle Tristant to one dish, named in blue Oye, d'Egypte., Cotinga rouge, de Cayenne., Grande Pie-griêche verdâtre, de Madagascar. and Pie-Griêche tachetée, de Cayenne., three with incised 20.

Twenty-five plates, blue interlaced Ls marks enclosing date letters oo, six with painter's marks of an M for Pierre Massy, nineteen with painter's marks of a dagger for Etienne Evans, the plates by Massy are named in blue for hupe, Epéronnier Mâle de la Chine, Tourterelle de Saint Domingue, Coq hupé and Froupia (?), but one bird on one of the plates is not identified on the underside. The plates by Evans are named in blue for Le manchot, du Cap de Bonne-Espérance., Geay, de Cayenne., Le Bec-en-cisaux, de Cayenne., La Cresserelle., Vanneau armé, du Sénégal., Merle, de la Guiane., Râle, de Cayenne., l'Onoré rayé, de Cayenne., Grebe, de l'Escalvonie., Poule d'eau, de Cayenne., Momot, du Brésil., Le grand pingoin, des mer du nor. (sic.), Hibou, des Terres Magellaniques..., Héron bleuâtre, de Cayenne., Martins-pécheurs, du Sénégail (sic.), Oye, de Guinée., Maubeche grise., L'Avocette. and Barbu à ventre tacheté, de Cayenne.
Pierre-Joseph-André Vielliard, painter of birds, flowers and patterns, 1783-93.
Edme-François Bouillat père, painter of flowers and birds, 1758-1810.
Pierre Massy, painter of flowers and birds, 1779-1802.
Étienne Evans, painter of birds, animals and flowers, 1752-1800.
Mlle Tristant, painter of flowers and patterns, 1788-92 (the attribution of this artist is unconfirmed).
Marie-Gabrielle-Sophie Binet (née Chanou), painter of flowers and patterns, 1779-98.
Geneviève-Julie Boitel (née Dépérais Dupéret), painter of flowers, 1786-95, 1797-1800 and 1807-1822.

Christie's. European Ceramics & Glass including the Property of a Collector. 31 March 2008, 10:30 am & 2:00 pm. 8 King Street, St. James's, London