A SEVRES PORCELAIN BLEU CELESTE-GROUND PLATE FROM THE SERVICE MADE FOR PRINCE YUSUPOV (ASSIETTE UNIE)

CIRCA 1783, BLUE INTERLACED L MARKS ENCLOSING DATE LETTERS FF, PAINTER'S MARK FOR PIERRE MASSY AND GILDER'S MARK FOR HENRY-FRANCOIS VINCENT

Details

The centre painted with pink roses and leaves within a gilt circular cartouche entwined with berried myrtle, the border with three flower-sprays within tooled gilt shaped oval cartouches suspending swags of oak leaves, within a shaped gilt line rim
9 3/8 in. (23.6 cm.) wide
Provenance

Probably purchased by Charles Böhmer, intermediary in the acquisition of the service on 31 March 1784 by Prince Nikolay Borisovich Yusupov (1750-1831).
Lot Essay

Charles Böhmer, the Parisian-based jeweller to the Crown, likely acted as an intermediary in the acquisition of this service by Prince Nikolay Borisovich Yusupov, a Russian art collector who was travelling in Europe.1 A second identical service was purchased by the Prince in 1784, presumably intended for another residence. In the first service delivery of 1784, all pieces are dated 1783. The painter Pierre Massy is recorded in the Artists' Ledgers as working on the first service between 16 October 1783 - 23 December 1783, see David Peters, Sèvres Plates and Services of the Eighteenth Century, Little Berkhamsted, 2015, Vol. III, p. 719. Seventy-two assiettes formed part of the first service delivery of 1784, each at a cost of 30 livres. The decorative scheme used on the present plate was popular, and appears with some small alterations on other services of the period, including: a service gifted to Conte Lascaris di Castellar, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Sardinia, another for Gustaf, Prince of Sweden and a third for Frederick Adolf, Duke of Östergötland. It is possible that Prince Yusupov saw one of these services during his travels in Europe which inspired his own purchases.
Surviving components of the first service delivery, include three assiettes unies of 1783, in the collection of the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, see Birioukova and Kazakevitch, Hermitage Collection Catalogue, 2005, pp. 169-173, nos. 899-910. Another was in the Zieseniss Collection, sold Christie's, Paris, 5 - 6 December 2001, lot 182.
Pierre Massy was a painter of flowers and birds at Sèvres from 1779 to 1802. Henry-François Vincent (le jeune, later père) was a gilder at Sèvres from 1753 to 1806.
1. The Prince later managed the Imperial porcelain factory in St. Petersburg and from 1814 went on to preside over his own porcelain factory at Arkhangelskoye.