A Sèvres roze chasse pink-ground écuelle, cover and stand circa 1766

each superbly painted by Charles Nicolas Dodin with roze chasse hunting scenes within gilt floral borders edged in purple against a the purple ground, the stand and finial restored



 

Possibly Louis XV, King of France (1710-1774)
Collection of Marquess of Donegall, Christie's London, 12 March 1884, lot 45.
Collection of madame J... [Worth], Paris, Hôtel Drouot, Me Baudouin, 17th-19th March 1927, lot 108.

David Peters, Sèvres Plates and Services of the 18th Century, 2005, Vol II, n° 59-3, pp. 313-316
David Peters, « Les services de porcelaines de Louis XV et Louis XVI », Exhibition catalogue, Versailles et les Tables Royales en Europe, November 1993- February 1994, pp. 113-114.
Jeffrey Weaver, French Art of the Eighteenth Century at the Huntington, 2008, n103-104 & 107, pp. 257-260 and pp. 265-267. 

The stand broken in two halfs and re-stuck and restored, re-painting of ground colour, the écuelle with one handle re-stuck and old restoration, two haircracks (4cm and 5cm), the cover with finial re-stuck and some re-gilding, all gilt rims somewhat rubbed.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

During the last quarter of the year 1759, Madame Lair, marchand-mercier rue du Roule, bought a service described as Rozes Chasse, Rozes attributs de Chasse and rozes fleurs. David Peters has demonstrated that this service was very likely sold by Madame Lair to Louis XV. The purchases by Louis XVI in 1782 for Versailles of a seau à verre, a beurrier, a couvercle de moutardier and a pot à sucre, all of which described as fond rose Paysage, must have been supplements or replacements for items with pink ground and landscape subjects. Louis XVI bought in 1789 two further pink ground ice cups again for Versailles. The known surviving items, dated 1758-1759, have polychrome landscape scenes with hunting and shooting parties, some with a principal figure possibly representing Louis XV, inspired by the series of tapestries woven at the Gobelins, Les Chasses de Louis XV, after designs by Jean-Baptiste Oudry from 1736, produced for the King.
The surviving items include a seau à verre du Roy and a seau à liqueur ovale in the Rosebery collection at Dalmeny House, Scotland (John Whitehead, "Vincennes and Sèvres porcelain from the collection of the Earl and Countess of Rosebery at Dalmeny House in Scotland", Salon International de la Céramique de Collection et des Arts du Feu, 1999, pp.18-19), two seaux à bouteille in the musée du Petit Palais, Paris, four plates and a seau à demi-bouteille in the Huntington Collection, San Marino (Wark, French Decorative Art in the Huntington Collection, 1979, pp. 102-104). Two plates were sold in Paris with the Wenz collection in 1995 (Etude Ferri, Hôtel Drouot, 8th December 1995, lot 141 and 142).
Our écuelle was possibly made in 1766 as a supplement for this service.
The pink ground was created in 1757-58 by the painter Philippe Xhrouuet. A document of 1^st January 1758 preserved in the Sevres archives specifies that "Xhrouuet après avoir fait de  luy-même plusieurs essais de couleurs a trouvé un fond couleur de rose très frais et  très agreable, il a eu pour cette découverte à peu près 150 livres de gratification" (Archives MNS, Y8, f° 44). The first pink ground porcelain were sold at Versailles in December 1758 and still in production during the next few years until 1763. But in 1766, the plain pink ground is no longer frequently used and it is not before 1774-1776 that the production starts again with two dinner services sold to the dealers Dumoulin and Bazin.
The style of the gilt frames of the reserves is closer to the late 1750's gilding than the mid-1760's neoclassical frames and probably made to match earlier decoration.
Most often, the écuelle were not used at dinner table but there are examples of Sevres dinner services including écuelles with the same decoration as other components of the service: an écuelle came with the green-ground service given by Louis XVI to Emperor Joseph II in 1777, two écuelles were in the rose et mirthe service bought by general Smith in 1778, others were in the service guirlandes de barbeaux bought by Louis XVI in 1783.
The sales records for 1766 list a number of écuelles with unspecified decoration sold that year, among them one delivered to Versailles in December 1766 to an anonymous buyer for the price of 432 livres; for comparison, the écuelle of the same size, now preserved in the Getty Museum, painted with the coat-of-arms and monogram of Madame Louise, was bought by her in 1764 for 240 livres (Adrian Sassoon, Vincennes and Sèvres porcelain, catalogue of the collection, 1991, n° 16, p. 81).
Fourteen years after painting our écuelle, Charles Nicolas Dodin will come back to the Chasses Royales working in 1780 on two of the nine porcelain plaques ordered by Louis XVI depicting scenes from the royal hunt, again after Oudry's tapestry cartoons.