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Gobelet à lait à deux anses couverts et soucoupe: C.20 & A & B-1980

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Object information

Current Location: Gallery 26 (Lower Marlay)

Titles

Gobelet à lait à deux anses couverts et soucoupe
Gobelet à lait chopine

Maker(s)

Factory: Vincennes Porcelain Manufactory
Factory: Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory

Entities

Categories

Description

Soft-paste porcelain painted in enamels with landscapes and birds, and gilded

Soft-paste porcelain painted in blue, shades of green, yellow, orange dark pink, mauve, brown, grey, and black enamels, and gilding. The cup is of truncated conical form with two loop handles, foliated at the upper and lower ends. The domed cover is surmounted by a finial in the shape of a multi-petalled flower and three leaves. The saucer is circular with a flat base and deep, sloping sides. There is a suspension hole in the interior edge of the cover, and in the footring. On one side of the cup there are two exotic birds perched in a tree with mosses, grasses, and a flowering plant at its foot. On the other side is a tree in the branches of which is a nest containing three nestlings, and a parent bird. Another bird stands on the ground amid similar flora. On the cover there are two landscapes each with a bird standing on the ground, and two flying birds in the spaces between them, one carrying a branch in its beak. On the saucer there are three landscapes, two with a bird on the ground, and a bird perched in a tree, and one with a bird standing on the ground. In the middle, there are three flying birds, one carrying a branch in its beak. There is a plain gold band round the base of the cup and dentilated gold bands round the rim of all three pieces. The handles are outlined in gold.

Notes

History note: Possibly Hugh Burton-Jones who built up his collection of Vincennes and Sèvres in the 1930s and 1940s; his daughter Mrs Kathleen Dorothy Gifford Scott; Winifred Williams (Robert Williams), 3 Bury Street, London.

Legal notes

Given jointly by the National Art Collections Fund and Professor J.H. Plumb, FBA

Place(s) associated

  • Vincennes ⪼ Val-de-Marne ⪼ France
  • Sèvres ⪼ France

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (1980-12-01) by Plumb, John, Sir, F.B.A. National Art Collections Fund

Dating

18th Century, Mid#
Louis XV
Production date: circa AD 1757 : On accession the date letter was interpreted as 1756 or 1756-57, but in 2014 David Peters recommended a revision of the dating system to A for 1754 rather than 1753, so that D would stand for 1757 instead of 1756. See Documentation, Peters, 2014

Note

Decoration of vignettes of birds in landscapes, or garden, and rural scenes on a white ground were popular in the mid to late 1750s. A vignette almost similar to the one with the nest on one side of the cup occurs on a small mug of 1758-9 said to bear the mark of Pierre-François Yvernel, formerly in the Elizabeth Parke Firestone Collection (see sale catalogue in Documentation), The vignette on the other side occurs on a gobelet à la reine of 1756 bearing a lozenge-shaped mark, formerly at Seaton Delaval (see sale catalogue in Documentation)

On accession the cup and saucer were attributed to Claude-François Tabary. Savill, 1988, III, noted that he was working for the factory in May 1751, April to October 1754, and retired in January, 1755 on grounds of ill health. His supposed mark is found on pieces dated 1755 and 1756, and there is therefore uncertainty in the association of the lozenge-shaped mark with this painter. The move of the factory from Vincennes to Sèvres took place at the end of September 1756.

This is a gobelet à lait or gobelet à lait chopine of the first size of two, although it is not quite so tall as the measurement given by Savill (1988) for this size, 14.5 to 15.5 cm. It holds one pint. The form had been introduced by 1752 when moulds and countermoulds were mentioned in the inventory of 1 October (1 7, fol. 10 ) . The second, smaller, size was in production in 1753. Plaster models and two drawings survive at Sèvres. One drawing shows two sizes of the cup and cover without a handle, and the other the cup with an elaborate handle, cover, and saucer.

School or Style

Rococo

People, subjects and objects depicted

Components of the work

Decoration composed of enamels ( blue, shades of green, yellow, orange dark pink, mauve, brown, grey, and black) gold
Saucer Diameter 21.8 cm Height 5.0 cm
Cup, Over Cover Height 14.3 cm
Across Handles Width 16.8 cm
Handles

Materials used in production

presumed lead-glaze Lead-glaze
Soft-paste porcelain

Techniques used in production

Lead-glazing

Inscription or legends present

  • Text: interlaced Ls enclosing D
  • Location: On base of cup and saucer
  • Method of creation: Painted in blue enamel
  • Type: Factory mark
  • Text: a diamond shape
  • Location: On base of cup and saucer above the factory mark
  • Method of creation: Painted in blue
  • Type: Painter's mark
  • Text: 4 cc
  • Location: On base of cup
  • Method of creation: Incised
  • Type: Mark
  • Text: 4
  • Location: On the base of the saucer
  • Method of creation: Incised
  • Type: Mark

References and bibliographic entries

Related exhibitions

Identification numbers

Accession number: C.20 & A & B-1980
Primary reference Number: 82588
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Tuesday 25 February 2020 Last processed: Wednesday 13 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Gobelet à lait à deux anses couverts et soucoupe" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/82588 Accessed: 2024-12-22 14:54:29

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{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/82588 |title=Gobelet à lait à deux anses couverts et soucoupe |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-22 14:54:29|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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