Sèvres porcelain ice cream cup tray - Eighteenth century

Sèvres hard-paste porcelain ice cream cup tray, also known as a saucer, with a Japan decoration in blue, red, and gold in the Imari style, featuring flowers and birds on terraces within reserves on a blue ground. Marked: LL interlaced, without date letter, mark of the gilder Weydinger.

Eighteenth century.

D. 24 cm.

Slight wear and some restored chips on the edge.

Some chips on the edge of the pedestal. (see photos)

Photos and additional information available upon request.

Provenance: Japan service of Prince Cardinal Giuseppe Doria Pamphili, Secretary of State and Nuncio to Pope Pius VI, delivered on May 12, 1780. Four services with decoration described as "Japan" were sold by the Sèvres factory in the 18th century. One delivered to Queen Marie-Antoinette in December 1777, another delivered to Voltaire's niece, Madame Denis, in October 1778. The third for Cardinal de Rohan in February 1779 and the last for Prince Cardinal Giuseppe Doria Pamphili, secretary of state to Pope Pius VI in May 1780. Neither Madame Denis's service nor that delivered to Marie Antoinette included footed saucers. Cardinal de Rohan-Guémenée's service included 12 ice cream cups and two trays for said ice cream cups, each priced at 60 livres. David Peters points out that these trays were Bouret trays and not footed saucers. In contrast, Prince Cardinal Giuseppe Doria Pamphili's service delivered in May 1780 included 10 footed saucers at a price of 78 livres each. A plate with a similar decoration from one of these services is kept at the Cité de la Céramique, (Catalogue of the MarieAntoinette exhibition, March 15-June 30, 2008, Paris, no. 144, p. 204, see also David Peters, Sèvres Plates and Services of the 18th Century, vol. III, numbers 77-7, 78-4, 79-1 and 80-2). A terrine from a Japan service is now kept at the Musée de Sèvres and another recently went up for public sale (Pescheteau-Badin, December 10, 2024, lot 275).