A SET OF TWELVE SEVRES TAILLANDIER GROUND PLATES

The decoration on the present plates is a variation on that found on a service made for Monsieur de Sartine, Lieutenant-General of Police (1729-1801). A large selection of pieces from this service, dated 1768-1787 and acquired by Nelson A. Rockefeller from The Antique Porcelain Company, were sold Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., New York, 11 April 1980, lot 251. The most obvious difference between this service and those to which the present plates belong is found in the Taillandier ground: those of the Sartine service have a large gilt dot in place of the stylized puce and green petaled rosettes found on the present examples.

For similar examples with the same distinctive Taillandier ground, see anonymous sale, Christie's, New York, 21 May 1997, lot 87; Property of a Lady, Sotheby's, New York, 5 November 1998, lot 93; and two plates from the Pompey Collection sold Christie’s, New York, 23 May 2002, sale 1173, lot 27 ($2,031.50). This may be the service purchased at Sèvres 1 October 1769 by Lord Harcourt.

Jean-Jacques Pierre le jeune is recorded at Sevres as a painter specializing in flowers and patterns and as a gilder from 1763-1800. Nicolas Catrice is recorded at Sevres as a painter specializing in flowers from 1757-74. Mme. Françoise-Phillipine Descoins is recorded at Sevres as a painter specializing in feathered edges, flowers and patterns from 1781-91 and again from 1793-1801.