This circular dish (compotier rond) is surely from a group of four salad bowls and eight dishes sold by the Parisian marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux to Charles de Saint-Albin, the Archbishop of Cambrai in November 1754.  Their decoration was described as ‘bordures à mosaïque, peints à fleurs‘ when sold by Duvaux and this dish would have cost 42 livres.  However, in the Sèvres factory’s sales records they were described as ‘8 compotiers mozaique en bleu‘ which clearly links the description to a dish of this decoration.

Madame de Pompadour also purchased a service with plates and dishes of this moulded pattern in 1753, but hers were  without the blue triangular decoration and smaller scattered sprays of flowers rather than the large central one on this dish.

Charles de Saint-Albin was the illegitimate son of the Regent, Philippe d’Orléans, with Florence Pellerin, a dancer at the opera.  As such, he was not accepted by the royal family until he was 24 years old in 1722 but from 1723 he was the Archéveque of Cambrai.