FINE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART
The Elegance of Porcelain
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A
highly important Sèvres plate from the Duchess of Manchester service, an
assiette à palmes, of indented lobed shape, painted with a spray of fruit
and European flowers by Taillandier, including: peaches, a rose, hyacinth,
honeysuckle, convolvulous and damsons, the border with three panels of
further flowers framed in cislée gilding with palm leaves, laurels that
are tied in bows at the top of each panel and linked with garlands of
flowers, reserved on a turquoise ground.
Date
Letter ee for 1782
Diameter:
91⁄2
ins (24
cms) Marks: crossed L’s containing date letter ee, trident mark for
Vincent Taillandier, gilder’s mark for Chauvaux l’aine.
Provenance:
Bears an old exhibition label for Mr. H. Slater, Stoke. This plate is from
a service given by Louis XVI to the Duchess of Manchester, the wife of the
fourth Duke of Manchester, British Ambassador to the Court of Versailles.
As a reward for his involvement in the treaty to end the American War of
Independence, the Duke was presented with a very valuable diamond
encrusted gold box and the Duchess received this service which was valued
at 21,080 livres (about £680 at that time). In 1802 it was purchased by
the Prince of Wales from the Duchess with a discounted negotiated price of
£840. Most of this service now remains in the Royal collection and was
exhibited in the Queen’s gallery in 1979, see catalogue, Sevres
porcelain from the Royal collection, no.1, p. 22. For a detailed article
about the Duchess of Manchester service see Geoffrey de Bellaigue, ‘A
Diplomatic Gift’, The Connoisseur, June 1977, pp. 92-99.