Dalva Brothers Antiques, Antique Furniture, New York

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Pair revolutionary Sevres cups and saucers.
 
Rare pair Sèvres gros bleu Revolutionary cups and saucers, gobelet à anses étrusques et sa soucoupe. The form of the cup was designed by Boizot after an antique prototype for the dairy of Marie-Antoinette at Rambouillet. The upswept three part handles, probably based on kylix handles, are glazed white with gilded decoration. They connect to the frieze which is decorated with sheathes of grass connected by tricolor bunting. There are two large oval reserves on each cup with revolutionary subjects between scrolled bands of gilding. The saucers are similarly decorated, but with three oval reserves of revolutionary devices.
A sheet of Revolutionary emblems, by Nicolas-Pierre Pithou, is illustrated on page 165 of Les Porcelainiers du XVIIIe Siècle Français: Hachette; Paris, 1964. Six of the nine motifs on the drawing are duplicated on the porcelain.

The pieces are marked “Sevres” in cursive and with the “RF” cipher, signifying République Française. This mark was first used in 1793.
They are signed “LG” for Étienne-Henri Le Guay who was at the manufactory from 1748 to 1796. There is also a row of four dots on one cup and saucer.

Height - 3½"                                      Diameter - 6½"

Ex Collection: Dr. William P. Harbeson

Literature: Ian Wardropper: News from a Radiant Future, Soviet Porcelain; The Art Institute of Chicago, 1992. Page 14. Illustrated, Figure 1, page 16. (As an example of the first use of revolutionary propaganda on porcelain.)

Christine A. Jones: Shapely Bodies: The Image of Porcelain in Eighteenth-Century France; University Of Delaware Press, 2013. (See "Postscriptum" for revolutionary porcelain. Page 245. Illustrated, Figure PS.5 in photospread).

Christine A. Jones: “Caution, Contents May Be Hot: A Cultural Anatomy of the TasseTrembleuse.” In Eighteenth-Century Thing Theory in a Global Context: From Consumerism to Celebrity Culture. Eds. Christina Ionescu and Ileana Baird. Farnham, UK: Ashgate, expected January 2014.

                                                       

Height (ins.): 3.5 (8.9 cm)     
Origin: France, 1793-1796     Period: First Republic

 

 

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