A SILVER-GILT MOUNTED SEVRES PORCELAIN 'BEAU BLEU' GROUND BALUSTER JUG AND HINGED COVER (POT 'A L'EAU TOURNE') AND AN ASSOCIATED LATER-DECORATED BASIN

THE EWER CIRCA 1772, CHARTREUSE INTERLACED L'S MARK ENCLOSING DATE LETTER T, INDISTINCT INCISED LETTERS, THE PAINTING BY L.-D. ARMAND L'AINE; THE BASIN PORCELAIN 18TH CENTURY, THE DECORATION 19TH CENTURY

Details

Each painted with exotic birds in reserve among trees in a wooded landscape within a gilt ciselé surround and further berried laurel swags
7 7/8 in. (20 cm.) high, the ewer
Provenance

Anonymous sale; Christie’s, New York, 2 June 2015, lot 318.


Lot Essay

This pear-shaped jug is recorded in four sizes and was intended for use and display on the dressing-table. Silver-gilt mounts, such as those seen here, cost between 24 to 54 livres. For a discussion of this form and an illustration of a similar Sèvres pink-ground jug and basin, see R. Savill, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, London, 1988, Vol. II, pp. 692-695, no. C450-I.
Basins of the same form as the present example (jatte 'ovale' 1ère grandeur) are usually paired with open ewers. Under short wave UV light and X-ray, the porcelain body of the basin appears to be 18th century soft paste Sèvres, but chromium appears in the green decoration, indicating that the painting must date post 1802.
Louis-Denis Armand l'âiné is recorded as a painter of birds, animals, landscapes and figures at the factory from 1745 to 1788.