A VINCENNES BLEU LAPIS-GROUND TANKARD AND COVER (TASSE 'LITRON' COUVERT OR 'POT A BOIRE')

For an example of this rare tankard shape in the Museo degli Argenti, Florence see Svend Eriksen and Geoffrey de Bellaigue, Sèvres Porcelain, Vincennes and Sèvres 1740-1800, London, 1987, p. 277, no. 92; another, decorated in gilding with birds within heart-shaped cartouches is in the Nelson Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and illustrated by Tamara Préaud and Antoine d'Albis, La Porcelaine de Vincennes, Paris, 1991, p. 160, no. 138. A bleu lapis-ground example formerly in the Collection of the Margraves and Grand Dukes of Baden, decorated with birds in gilding but without a cover, was sold at Christie's in New York on 7 June 2012, lot 144. This combination of ground colour and flower decoration on this form would appear to be comparatively rare.

The unidentified painter's mark on this tankard is possibly intended to be the heraldic symbol for wood, or perhaps the sign for ermine. See David Peters, Sèvres Plates and Services of the 18th Century, Little Berkhamsted, 2005, p. 96, where the author notes that the period of occurrence of the mark coincides with Jean-Jacques Sioux's time working at the factory.