Very rare Sèvres Chinoiserie coffee can and saucer (gobelet litron et soucoupe.) The cobalt blue base ground is overlaid with a very unusual thick jade-green matte glaze with a slight luster. Luster glazes are very rare at Sèvres. The decorative scenes were apparently created by applying glaze onto an already fired dark blue glaze. The soft unfired upper glaze was then scraped away to reveal the dark blue design. Wax resists, which would have burned away during the second firing, were possibly used to reserve the larger plain blue areas.

The cup is decorated with a scene of a boy seated at a table holding aloft an exotic bird. Swags of flowers, hung from ribbon bows, decorate each side of the panel and flow uninterrupted under the handle. The rim is decorated with a running leaf motif on the blue ground.

The saucer is decorated with two panels each containing a figure with a bird in a landscape; swags of flowers suspended under bows connect the two panels. The center is decorated with a gilded rosette on a blue ground; the rim with running leafage on a blue ground. [Slight wear to the gilding in the well of the saucer.]

Date letter “LL” for 1788

Painter’s mark “L.” for Louis-François L’Écot.