RARE ASSIETTE EN PORCELAINE DE SÈVRES DU SERVICE... Lot n° 45

Plate "to be mounted" in hard porcelain, the marli with lapis blue background powdered with gold, bordered on one side by a frieze of waves and on the other by water leaves, the center decorated with a rose window surrounded by a frieze of gold mantling. A small chip restored to the edge. Royal Manufacture of Sevres, 1820-1821. Blue stamp mark with two interlaced L's of King Louis XVIII dated 1820, mark of the laying of the blue background dated March 4, 1820 and mark of the gilder Charles Marie Pierre BOITEL (active 1797-1822) dated January 10, 1821. D. 24 cm. Provenance One of the twenty-four plates "à monter" of the "service du Roi, fond bleu etc.", known as the "Iconographic French" service, delivered on November 24, 1824 to King Charles X for the table of the Grand Trianon (Versailles). Described "lapis background, portraits of famous men painted in brown", it included 91 plates "à portraits" with a unit price of 80 francs, and 24 plates "à monter", with the same marli and simple rosette in the center, with a unit price of 30 francs. No other plate of this service is known to date. History Commissioned from Sèvres in 1819, the French iconographic service was intended to reproduce the portraits of the great men of France. Most of the rare known portrait plates are dated 1820-1821, such as our plate. It was delivered to the Grand Trianon in November 1824, as Charles X had just succeeded his brother who died on September 16. This service was probably taken into exile by the king in 1830. Since the Empire, several services of this type had been made, the first having been offered to Cardinal Fesch on the occasion of the birth of the King of Rome in 1811, another was delivered to the Court of Rome in 1819. Napoleon and then Louis XVIII also had a service of "Famous Italians" (with a green background) at the Tuileries, but strangely enough, all of them reproduced great men of various nationalities. The iconographic service was the first to focus on France only, hence its name "French". See Archives de Sèvres (thanks to Mrs. Delphine Valmalle, in charge of the library and documentation at Sèvres): - Vv1, fol. 226 (entry to the sales store), - Pb5, sheet no. 90 dated December 4, 1824 (corresponding appreciation sheet), - Vbb6, fol. 143 v° (delivery). Related works The Musée national du château de Versailles keeps in Trianon 3 plates "à portraits" of this service, and in particular one representing Nicolas Malebranche with the same date of the blue background (inv. V 5809). Literature Ch. Baulez, "Acquisitions", Revue du Louvre, 1997, n° 5-6, p. 49.