A Soft-Paste Sèvres Porcelain Sugar Bowl, 1775

With the factory mark enclosing the date letter x for 1775, adjacent painter’s mark of five dots for Jacques Fontaine (active at Vincennes and Sèvres 1752-1807), gilder’s mark B. for  Jean-Pierre Boulanger (active at Vincennes and Sèvres 1754-85).

This sugar bowl and cover (pot à sucre Bouret) has a decorative scheme that is seen on pieces with dates commencing in 1769 with various colours of speckled ground known as ‘fond Taillandier’ and large painted reserves imitating classical cameos.

Morin clearly painted similar cameos onto pieces of Sèvres porcelain with different schemes of decoration during 1769 such as with horizontal lines of gilding.  This is seen on a sugar bowl (missing its’ cover) with the date letter q and painter’s mark M in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London [from the Bandinel collection 1451-1853] and a matching cup and saucer which is unmarked in the British Museum, London [Franks collection 1897, Franks.381 ].

The Sèvres factory’s surviving archives brings more evidence to the story.  These painted cameos were described as ‘médaillons‘.  In the records of overtime payments to Sèvres painters in 1769 Morin is recorded as being paid to paint 181 such médaillons amongst other artists also working on the use of this subject.

Height 9.6cm
Diameter 8cm

11440

£ 4,800

 

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