A SEVRES PORCELAIN PLATE FROM THE SERVICE MADE FOR MARIE CAROLINE OF NAPLES (ASSIETTE UNIE)

CIRCA 1773, BLUE INTERLACED L MARKS ENCLOSING DATE LETTER U, PAINTER'S MARKS FOR JACQUES FONTAINE, INCISED FS

Details

The centre with the entwined floral initials CL beneath a circlet of pink roses, the border with three gilt oval medallions of putti among clouds flanked by laurel wreaths and three baskets of flowers, within a shaped blue border gilt with C-scrolls and trailing foliage
9 5/8 in. (24.4cm.) wide
Provenance

Given by Louis XV, King of France in January 1774 to Queen Marie Caroline, wife of Ferdinand IV, King of Naples and Sicily (1752-1814).
Lot Essay

This plate is from a service given by Louis XV to Queen Marie Caroline, sister of Marie Antoinette and wife of Ferdinand IV, King of Naples and Sicily, on the occasion of the baptism of their second daughter, Princess Luisa Maria Amelia Teresa, to whom Louis XV was Godfather. Queen Marie Caroline was known as Charlotte-Louise in France. The service was recorded in the Journal des Présents du Roi in January 1774 amongst 'Présens du Roi à L'occasion du Baptème de la Princess du Naples Mere de la Jeunne Princesse'. Louis XV was represented at the baptism on 1 February 1774 by Louis-Charles-Auguste le Tonnelier, baron de Breteuil, Ambassador-Extraordinary to Naples and Sicily. The service is recorded in three parts and was accompanied by thirty-nine white biscuit figures, it included thirty-six assiettes at a cost of 54 livres each and cost 12,424 livres in total.
It is not known when the Marie Caroline service was dispersed, but the majority of the service was apparently at Holland House, Kensington, London, in the 19th century and a portion was sold at Christie's on 1 July 1898, lots 143-149. A plate from this service, from the John Shearer collection, was sold at Christie's, London on 25 November 2014, lot 33. Many pieces from this service are in public collections today, including a plate in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, (C.100-1971), a mustard tray and two salt cellars are illustrated by Linda Roth and Clare Le Corbeiller, see French Eighteenth-Century Porcelain at the Wadsworth Atheneum, The J. Pierpont Morgan Collection, Wadsworth, 2000, pp. 269-273, nos.139,140. For a full discussion of this service see David Peters, Sèvres Plates and Services of the Eighteenth Century, Little Berkhamsted, 2015, Vol. III, pp. 505-509.
Jacques Fontaine was a painter of flowers, figures, patterns and cameos and also a gilder at Sèvres from 1752 to 1807.