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Gobelet litron et soucoupe
Factory:
Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Painter:
Vielliard, André-Vincent
Soft-paste porcelain cup and saucer with a pale yellow ground, painted in blue and maroon enamels with a continuous landscape on the cup, and a horticultural vignette and landscape on the saucer, and gilded.
Soft-paste porcelain decorated overglaze with a pale yellow ground, painting in blue and maroon enamels, and gilding. The glaze on the lower part of the cup handle is speckly, and base of the saucer is very speckly particularly in the middle. Cylindrical cup with double-curved handle. Circular saucer with flat central area and deep sloping sides. There is a suspension hole in the footring of the saucer. Both pieces have a pale yellow ground. The cup is painted in blue with continuous landscape including buildings and figures, with above and below a maroon band with dark blue dots below. Round the upper part of the cup there is a border composed of a series of blue Ss linked by wavy sprays of blue leaves with a maroon band above. There are bands of gilding round the foot and rim, lines of gilding down the sides of the handle, and down its back, a large leaf, a spot, a bell flower, three spots a smaller bell flower and eight spots. The centre of the saucer is painted in blue with a horticultural vignette, encircled by a maroon band with dark blue dots outside it. A similar band encircles the outer edge of the base. The sides are painted in blue with a continuous landscape with buildings. The border is en suite with that on the cup.
History note: Louis Colville Gray Clarke, Cambridge, by whom lent to The Fitzwilliam Museum in 1947
Given by L.C.G. Clarke, MA
Method of acquisition: Given (1956-07-19) by Clarke, Louis Colville Gray
18th Century, Late
Louis XVI
Circa
1787
CE
-
Crica
1788
CE
André-Vincent Vieillard (1717-90) joined the factory at Vincennes in 1752. He was a versatile artist but not so talented at figure painting as Dodin and Morin. Fom the mid 1760s he concentrated on landscapes with small figures, and in the 1780s also executed continuous landscapes on a coloured grounds, as on this cup and saucer, and C.62 & A-1961.
The gobelet litron was named after a cubic measure, the litron, which was normally made of wood, and was used for dry stuffs, such as corn and peas. Its size in Paris had been defined in 1670 as the equivalent of 9.45 cm high and 10.15 cm in diameter in pouces and lignes, which was larger than the largest of the porcelain cups. The first size of gobelet litron had been introduced at Vincennes before October 1752 when it was mentioned in an inventory of stock, but was probably being made earlier.The second and third sizes followed in 1753, and the fourth and fifth in 1757. They could be fitted with one of seven different handle forms . A drawing in the archives at Sèvres is dated 19 February 1753 (MNS, R1, liasse 2, dossier 2, No. 6bis) They were supplied singly, singly with a plateau carré, in ’harlequin’ sets, or as part of matching dejeuner. (See Documentation, Préaux and d'Albis, 1991, Savill, 1988, Bellaigue 2009). This is a gobelet litron of the third size.
Yellow grounds were not really popular until about 1775 and then continued to be so through the 1780s, particularly after 1787. See other examples C.60 & A-1961 an écuelle also by Vielliard, painted with continuous landscapes, in purple.
Decoration
composed of
enamels
( blue and maroon)
ground colour
( pale yellow)
gold
Saucer
Diameter 14.7 cm
Height 3.5 cm
Rim Of Cup
Diameter 7.4 cm
Cup
Height 7.5 cm
Cup Including Handle
Width 10 cm
Handle
presumed lead glaze
Lead-glaze
Soft-paste porcelain
Throwing
: Soft-paste porcelain, thrown, with applied moulded handle and lead-glaze,decorated overglaze with pale yellow ground colour, painting in blue and maroon enamels, and gilding
Lead-glazing
Inscription present: four dots unevenly arranged in a horizontal row
Inscription present: an horizontal line with three dots evenly dispersed above
Inscription present: a 4 with a sideways v possibly a 7
Inscription present: square white paper label, now buff
Inscription present: rectanuglar white lined paper labelw tih cut corners
Accession number: C.8 & A-1956
Primary reference Number: 93543
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
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The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Gobelet litron et soucoupe" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/93543 Accessed: 2024-12-18 10:22:41
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{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/93543
|title=Gobelet litron et soucoupe
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-18 10:22:41|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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