A Sèvres Porcelain 'Jeweled' Black-Ground 'Dauphin' Cup and Saucer (Gobelet litron et soucoupe), circa 1781
Estimate
5,000 - 7,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
A Sèvres Porcelain 'Jeweled' Black-Ground 'Dauphin' Cup and Saucer (Gobelet litron et soucoupe), circa 1781
of the third size, finely decorated with a band of red enamelled 'jewels' set on stamped gilt foils, the cup centered by an enamelled oval of a dolphin, further enriched with tiny white enamel jewels imitating pearls, the rims with further white pearls, gilt-dentil rims, interlaced LL marks in blue enclosing date letters DD for 1781, painter's mark of a triangle for Antoine Capelle (active at Vincennes and Sèvres between 1745-1800), the cup with gilder's mark LG in gold for Etienne-Henry Le Guay (active at Vincennes and Sèvres between 1748-49, 1751-97), the cup with indistinct incised numeral, the saucer with incised numeral 36a
diameter of saucer 5 in.
12.7 cm
By repute, Formerly in the Collections of Baron Élie de Rothschild (1917–2007) and Baroness Liliane de Rothschild (1916–2003);
Chefs-d'oeuvre d'une grande collection européenne, Christie's, Paris, 5 November, 2014, lot 80;
Anonymous sale, Pescheteau-Badin, Paris, 26 November, 2021, lot 130;
Where acquired by the present collector.
This cup commemorates the long-awaited birth of Louis Joseph Xavier, Dauphin of France, the son of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, on 22 October 1781. Geoffrey de Bellaigue has discussed the range of commemorative objects produced by the Sèvres manufactory to celebrate the event:"In September 1781, in anticipation of the birth of an heir to the throne, [Jean-Jacques] Bachelier was engaged in designing allegories and symbols appropriate to the anticipated event. During the period from 20 November 1781 to 25 March 1782 a range of cups and a few broth-basins were fired in the enamel kiln which were painted with dolphins, fleurs-de-lis and allegorical subjects, no doubt based on Bachelier's sketches."
Tragically, Louis Joseph Xavier died of tuberculosis at the Château de Meudon in 1789, at the age of seven, and was succeeded as Dauphin by his younger brother, Louis Charles.
When the present cup and saucer were sold in 2014, the catalogue entry drew attention to several relevant entries in the Sèvres archives. These record that the painter, gilder and enamel painter Philippe Parpette received an extraordinary payment of 24 livres in November 1781 (Arch. MNS, F23). The painters' payment registers refer to "two third-size litron cups with black ground by Capelle, richly enamelled" by Parpette and Leguay. The same cups are subsequently recorded in the firing register of 3 December 1781 as "two third-size cups and saucers with black ground, enamelled" (Archives MNS, VI1). While the identification cannot be confirmed with certainty, these entries may relate to the present cup and saucer.
A closely related gobelet litron and saucer painted by Louis-François Lécot, decorated with similar imagery of dolphins and bearing the inscription La Voeu de la France. 22.8.1781, is preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. no. 786-1882.). A further gobelet litron with a brown ground and a central panel depicting a dolphin and child, framed by applied jewelling, is illustrated in R. Shaw, A Thing of Beauty is a Joy For Ever: Vincennes and Sèvres Porcelain from a Private Collection, London, 2017, pp. 158-59.
Related Literature
S. Eriksen and G. de Bellaigue, Sèvres Porcelain, London, 1987, p. 135.
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