This small déjeuner tiroir with ajouré border on a ground of lapis et verd with decoration of children is likely to be the one bought on 29 March 1760 by M. Georges[1] of a for the rather high price of 360 livre as this is the only déjeuner tiroir lapis et verd in the Sèvres factory sales records for 1759 and 1760.
The decoration of children in the manner of Boucher on a green and blue ground was particularly expensive which accounts for the high price. The two-handled cup is usually called a tasse à toilette and is a rare addition to such a déjeuner, the hot milk jug is also an uncommon form.
For Sèvres the year 1759 was a turning point as the finances of the factory (and indeed the country due to the war) were in a parlous state and Mme de Pompadour interceded with the King in this year to buy the factory outright.
Rosalind Savill wrote:
“At the Sèvres sale at Versailles in December Louis XV and Mme de Pompadour both bought costly examples of a new combination of ground colours which was introduced in 1759. To increase the factory’s marketability at these sales it needed to produce striking new shapes and decoration to entice buyers, and the King’s ownership coincided with the application of the lapis and green to the same piece. It was technically tricky to apply because the lapis was put on under the glaze and the green over the glaze, making designing the patterns particularly complicated. It was probably the invention of Duplessis who at this time advised on the placing of ground colours.”[2]
Savill further notes that Mme de Pompadour bought a pot pourri à vaisseau and three tea services and a cup and saucer with the lapis and green ground colour in 1759. The large green and blue tea service, now in the Wallace Collection, is probably the déjeuner ‘Courteille’ saffre et verd bought by Mme de Pompadour for 720 livres on 28 December 1759. It is also painted with children by Viellard and with a similar lapis and green and oeil de perdrix ground.[3] In 1760 she added a pair of pot pourri Fontaine à dauphin and then a pair of wall sconces all in lapis et verd which she displayed in her study at the Château de Ménars.[4]
The King also bought pieces with the same ground colour in 1759 including a larger tea service similarly painted by Viellard with children in the manner of Boucher for 1,080 livres.[5]
Major-General Sir George Burns’s father, the art collector Walter Spencer Morgan Burns (1872–1929) was a nephew of the American banker J. P. Morgan. Whilst very much in the taste of J. P. Morgan this déjeuner is not recorded in his collection according to Linda Roth.
We are grateful to David Peters, Linda Roth and the late Dame Rosalind Savill for help with this entry.
Condition:
Flower finials and small section of border of tray restored. Chips to rim of cover and spout, cover of hot milk jug restored. Slight losses to gilding.
Provenance:
Major-General Sir George Burns, K.C.V.O., D.S.O., O.B.E., M.C. of North Mymms Park, Hatfield, Hertfordshire
By descent in the family
References:
Savill 1988
Rosalind Savill, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, London 1988
Savill 2021
Rosalind Savill, Everyday Rococo, Madame de Pompadour and Sevres Porcelain, (Unicorn Publishing Group, 2021)
SOLD
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[1] M. Georges was a dealer who specialized in buying snuff boxes from Sèvres according to Dame Rosalind Savill.
[2] Savill 2021, vol. II chapter 16, p. 787.
[3] Savill 1988, vol. II, C401-6 and Savill 2021, fig. 16.17.
[4] These are now respectively in the Royal Collection, Boughton House and the Victoria and Albert Museum. See Savill 2021.
[5] Now with Michele Beiny, New York. Savill 2021, fig, 16.18.