A Soft-Paste Sèvres Porcelain Lidded Cup and Saucer, circa 1761
With the factory mark which on the saucer encloses the date letter I for 1762.
The cup shape known as gobelet couvert was identified in the Wallace Collection catalogue, vol. II, p. 543 as distinct from a gobelet Litron couvert.It differs from the Litron model by its indented base.It was paired with either a Litron saucer, or as in this case, a Bouillard saucer.
The decoration, probably called ‘à palmes et fleurs’ was being produced by 1759, when Madame de Pompadour may have acquired a pair of cups and saucers and a sugar bowl with a green ground for cash.It also may have been conflated with decoration described as ‘à rubans’, as proposed by Rosalind Savill in Everyday Rococo, vol. II, p. 708.