
Sebastian Kuhn
Department Director
This auction has ended. View lot details
Sold for £8,287.50 inc. premium
Our European Ceramics specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialist
Department Director

Head of Department, Director

Head of Sale
Provenance:
Purchased by Marie-Thérèse de Savoie, comtesse d'Artois, on 27 June 1789
This expensive service purchased by the comtesse d'Artois in June 1789 was meant for use by the comte and comtesse in their Versailles apartments, being described as pour Versailles [for Versailles] in the sale records. Due to the revolution however it is unlikely the service saw much use, as the comte and comtesse fled the country only three weeks after delivery. There were overall six compotier ovale at a price of 42 livres each. See David Peters, Sèvres Plates and Services of the 18th Century (2015), vol. IV, no. 89-3, for a full listing and discussion of the service.
Maria Theresa of Savoy was born in 1756 in Turin, the fifth child of Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia. She married the Count of Artois, the youngest grandson of King Louis XV of France and the later King Charles X of France. They had four children together, two of which survived childhood. After the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, they left Versailles for Savoy. In 1791 her husband left Turin and moved to Trier, where his uncle was Archbishop-Elect. The comtesse stayed behind and the couple lived separated for the rest of their lives. She died in 1805 in Graz, Austria.