Literature

With the factory mark in blue enclosing the date letters MM for 1789, under the painter’s mark of the zodiacal sign for Libra for Guillaume Noël (active at Vincennes and Sèvres 1755-1807).

The service from which this plate comes was delivered to the Comtesse d’Artois, wife of Louis XVI’s youngest brother the Comte d’Artois, who subsequently reigned as King Charles X from 1824 to 1830.

The decoration is identical to that on a service 'riches en couleurs, et riche en or' which was personally chosen by Marie-Antoinette in February 1784 from the factory’s watercolour pattern book. After the Queen ordered her service she was asked if it could be given to King Gustav III of Sweden, who was due to come to France in July, and she agreed on condition that another identical service should be made for her as quickly as possible, which it was by late August. The third use of this scheme was for the Comtesse d'Artois' service delivered to Versailles on 27th June 1789.

This service included 96 plates, costing 33 livres each and overall it was a very large service with indications of intention for use with large numbers of diners in that there were 36 sorbet cups and 24 wine glass coolers.

The painter Noel, whose mark is on this plate, can be seen working on various parts of this service from references in the factory's kiln records where parts of this service can be identified for example between January and March 1789.

At some point, probably mostly in the 19th century parts of these services became combined. A sale at Parke Bernet auctions, New York, in 1948, contained a group which included pieces from the Gustav III, Marie-Antoinette and Comtesse d’Artois services. Much of this large group belongs to a Brazilian family collection.

Many pieces from the 1784 Marie-Antoinette and 1789 Comtesse d'Artois deliveries are in the collection of the Palace of Versailles. Adrian Sassoon purchased a group of pieces from the Comtesse d'Artois service from the collection of Florence Gould which are now in a private collection in Palm Beach, Florida. There are plates also from this service in the collection of the Dukes of Wellington at Stratfield Saye, Berkshire, and in the Bowes Museum, County Durham, UK.