Sevres, Manufacture Imperiale

Porcelain (hard-paste)

23 cm

1809

Sevres Arch. MNS, VU1, f ° 64

Sevres Sales Book description: Service à guirlandes de fleurs sur fond d’or, groupes de fleurs au milieu des assiettes

A Sèvres dessert plate from the ‘Service with garlands of flowers on a gold background, with groups of flowers in the middle of the plate’. This plate was part of the service delivered to the Emperor Napoleon for the palace of Compiegne in April 1809.

In 1808, Queen Caroline of Bavaria, wife of King Maximilian of Bavaria, ordered a service with this design. It was sent to the Queen on the 29th December 1808 and included 48 dinner plates with garlands of flowers, 12 comports, 4 bowls for strawberries, 2 ‘Eagle’ sugar bowls, 2 ‘Jasmin’ baskets, 2 ice buckets. The order is recorded in the Sèvres sales book as: A Monsieur de Cetto, ministre de sa Majesté le roi de Bavière, Pour sa Majesté le reine de Bavière, 48 assiettes plates guirlandes de fleurs, 12 compotiers à pieds, 4 jattes à fraises, 2 sucriers aigle, 2 corbeilles Jasmin, 2 sceaux à glaces, Arch. MNS. Vy18, f° 64.

On October 26, 1808, another order for the same design was placed. The Sèvres sales books states that this service was for the palace of Saint-Cloud, for the use of the Emperor Napoleon, (Sevres Arch. MNS, VU1, f ° 64). It was delivered April 3, 1809, but to the palace of Compiègne, and consisted of 120 plates, 72 listed on the Sèvres sales book for 26 October 1808 and 48 in the sales book for 5 April 1809.

It is highly likely that this plate is from the service delivered to the Emperor at Compiègne in 1809. The fact that the red ‘Manf Impl’, (Manufacture Imperiale), preceding ‘de Sèvres 1809’ affixed to the back of the plate, has been scraped off supports that this has come from an Imperial source. Several examples of Sèvres porcelain from which the Imperial mark was either partially or completely erased at the beginning of the Restoration of the crown are known. This is especially the case with the plates from the ‘Service Particular’ the personal service of the Emperor, also known as the ‘Headquarters Service’ whose red mark of ‘Manf Impl de Sèvres’ was entirely ground off, being replaced with the two crossed `L’ of King Louis XVIII.

An addtional 66 plates of this decoration are recorded in the Sèvres order books.

On February 23, 1809 the Queen of Bavaria ordered twenty-four additional plates of the same design and they were delivered on December 31, 1809, and today are to be found in Munich. (twenty-two are kept at the ‘Residenze’ and two at the National Museum). The archives of the Sevres factory cannot determine the destination of the remaining 42 plates, but these platers are more likely to have the year date of 1810 on them.