Literature

These pieces are dated for 1782 and 1784 which corresponds to the production of this service in the factory's surviving kiln registers. The latter also agree with the painter's marks which are for Pierre le jeune and Mme. Taillandier. One is also marked for the gilder M.-B. Chauvaux.

The service from which these seaux derive was given by Louis XVI to Prince Henry of Prussia, the brother of Frederick the Great, who visited France and was received at Versailles in August to October 1784. Prince Henry was a shrewd general and advisor to his brother, and also a committed francophile. He received many presents from Louis XVI, including Gobelins tapestries and Sèvres vases, as well as the Sèvres porcelain dinner service. A detailed account of his visit can be found in the catalogue of the French version of the recent Visitors to Versailles exhibition.

The service was given on 22 October 1784 and is recorded in the Journal des Présents du Roi, the list of diplomatic gifts made by the Crown. There were 72 plates, and a variety of other components including just two of these seaux à bouteille, costing 192 livres each. The service is now widely dispersed in various museums and collections, including a set of six plates in the Metropolitan Museumof Art, New York, more plates in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, and two tasses à glace in the British Royal Collection.

A pair of sorbet coolers and 22 plates from this service were sold from the collections of Barons Alphonse, Édouard and Guy de Rothschild collection latterly at the Hôtel Lambert, Paris, by Christie's, New York, 13th October 2023, lot 404.