A pair of Sèvres (hard paste) porcelain topographical dessert plates from the ‘Service des Vues Suisses’ given by Emperor Napoléon I to Eugène de Beauharnais, 1811
Estimate
12,000 - 18,000 EUR
Lot Details
Description
each transfer-printed in sepia and painted with a Swiss landscape, one with a view titled VUE D’UNE TOUR SUR UNE HAUTEUR d'où l'on découvre le Lac de Moral., the other with VUE DE BOURG DE NAEFELS et des Montagnes du côté du Lac de Wallenstadt., inscribed in black to the reverse, within a well gilt with a band of anthemion, the border reserved with five portrait panels flanked by arabesques and palmettes, with classical male or female profile portraits within pink lustre ground roundels, divided by star motifs reserved with trophies, red stencilled Manufacture Impériale de Sèvres marks above date 1811, gilder’s RM mark to one, various incised letters and numerals
(2)
Diam. 23,5 cm; diam. 9 1/4 in.
From the service given by Emperor Napoléon I to Prince Eugène de Beauharnais, Vice-Roi d’Italie prince de Venise, grand-duc de Francfort, duc de Leuchtenberg and prince d’Eichstätt, delivered on 31 December 1811
C. Leprince, Napoléon Ier & la Manufacture de Sèvres: L'art de la porcelaine au service de l'Empire, Paris, 2016, p. 287, no. 175.
The pairs of plates in the following four lots are from the dessert service depicting Swiss views that was delivered by order of Napoléon I to the Grand Chambellan, as a gift for his stepson, Eugène de Beauharnais (1781-1824), Vice-Roi d’Italie prince de Venise, grand-duc de Francfort, duc de Leuchtenberg and prince d’Eichstätt, on 31 December 1811 (Sèvres, Cité de la céramique, Archives, Vy20, fol. 25v and Vbb4, fol. 5). The views were taken from 18th century engravings which were published in Tableaux de la Suisse, ou voyage pittoresque fait dans les XIII cantons du Corps Helvétique by the soldier and historian Béat Fidèle Antoine Jean Dominique de La Tour-Châtillon de Zurlauben (1720–1799) in collaboration with Jean-Benjamin de Laborde (1734–1794). Published in Paris in several parts from 1777, with engravings, portraits and maps, it was intended to illustrate the assets of Switzerland, both physical and cultural, through its landscape, great writers, scientists and leaders. The service included seventy-two plates, twelve compotiers, two footed bowls, two sugar bowls and two glacières at a total cost of 5760 francs. A relatively new and innovative technique was employed for the decoration: a combination of transfer printing for the outlines and hand-painting in enamels for the decoration. See Camille Leprince, Napoléon Ier & la Manufacture de Sèvres: L'art de la porcelaine au service de l'Empire, Paris, 2016, p. 287, no. 175 for a list of the components of the service and an illustration of a plate from this service with a view of Lake Lugano in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (object Number: 2006.189). Six plates from this service were sold at Sotheby’s, London, on 14 January 2021, lots 97-102 and another at Bonhams, London, on 27 October 2021, lot 79.