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126 - 18th CENTURY SÈVRES TENDER PORCELAIN PALM DISH, DATED 1768 F…
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Estimate €2,000 - €3,000
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18th CENTURY SÈVRES TENDER PORCELAIN PALM DISH, DATED 1768 From the service of the Baron de Breteuil Polychrome decoration in the centre of a duck on a flowery terrace and on the wing of bouquets of flowers in three reserves surrounded by palms and garlands of flowers in gold on a celestial blue background The bird is captioned in black on the reverse: American duck Marked : LL interlaced, letter-date P for 1768, mark of the painter Charles-François Aloncle D. 25 cm (9 ¾ in.) Provenance: Service of Louis-Charles-Auguste Le Tonnelier, Baron de Breteuil, delivered on 16 April 1768. A soft-paste Sevres porcelain plate, 18th century, dated 1768, from baron de Breteuil's service Louis-Charles-Auguste Le Tonnelier, baron de Breteuil (1730-1807), was French minister plenipotentiary in Cologne from 1758 to 1759, in Russia from 1760 to 1763, ambassador to Sweden from 1763 to 1767, ambassador to the Netherlands from 1768 to 1769, ambassador extraordinary to the Two Sicilies from 1772 to 1774 and ambassador to Austria from 1775 to 1783. He was an integral part of the Secret du Roi, the secret network of diplomats responsible for reporting to Louis XV. On his return from Austria, he became Minister and Secretary of State of the King's Household. He was appointed Prime Minister on 12 July 1789, two days before the storming of the Bastille, and left the country with other royalists. During his exile, he acted as Prime Minister in exile on behalf of the royal family, negotiating with other European monarchies and organising the family's failed attempt to flee Paris in 1791. After Marie-Antoinette's execution in 1793, he retired to private life near Hamburg, but returned to France in 1802, where he died five years later. The service included 96 dinner plates priced at 36 livres each, described as "assiette à manger" in the sales register (Arch. Sèvres, Vy4, f° 142v). David Peters points out that it is very likely that a large part of the Baron de Breteuil service belonged to Count Alexander Dmitrievich Cheremetiev in the nineteenth century and was sold in 1906 by the New Bond Street London dealer Asher Wertheimer along with other pieces with a celestial-blue ground (see D. Peters, Sèvres Plates and Services, 2015, vol. II, no. 68-1, pp. 395-396 ff and Notes on the Historic Chérémèteff Collection of old Turquoise Sèvres Porcelain, c. 1906, pp. 49-52; no. 68-77-79 to 167). The bird depicted on this plate is based on an engraving by Georges Edwards (1694-1773) in The Natural History of Birds (cf. Fig. 1) published between 1743 and 1751 under the title The Dusky and Spotted Duck (pl. 99). From 1765 onwards, the bird painters at the Sèvres manufactory relied on this seven-volume collection, no doubt on the initiative of Charles Lennox, third Duke of Richmond (1735-1806), who in 1765 commissioned a lapis green and blue service from Sèvres decorated with birds taken from the Edwards volumes belonging to the Duke. Another Sèvres service with a celestial blue background decorated with birds after Edwards preceded that of the Baron de Breteuil by a year. It was delivered on 31 December 1767 to bankers Bouffet and Dangirard on behalf of Count Cyril Razoumosski. This large service, comprising 108 pieces, joined the collections of Ferdinand de Rothschild. It is now almost entirely preserved at Waddesdon Manor in England (S. Schwartz, Le service Razumovski, un cabinet de curiosités sur porcelaine, 2005).
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About the sale Furniture and Works of Art - Evening Sale (Lot 1-170)
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Auction time 06/16/2026 at 5:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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