Literature

A dessert plate assiette à dessert from Louis XVI’s bleu caillouté service, 1792.

Interlaced Ls, date-letter PP for 1792, painter’s mark B.o for Boileau.

The service from which this plate derives is one of the most elusive royal Sèvres services of the eighteenth century. David Peters has not established its original purchase date, but considers that it was first ordered by Louis XV, perhaps in the late 1760s, as the style of caillouté gilding is closer to that on the Christian VII service of 1768-9 than earlier versions of this pattern.

The Sèvres archives show that Louis XVI ordered two supplements, in 1791 and 1792 for an existing service of this pattern.

Versailles has recently acquired a 1792 seau à bouteille from this set.

There were six assiettes à dessert painted by Boileau in the 1792 supplement. Our plate is clearly one of these.

Private Collection, USA, 2017