Footnotes

Provenance:
Delivered to Emperor Napoleon I at the Palais de Fontainebleau in October 1809

For a discussion of the dessert service "fond rouge, papillons et fleurs", commissioned for Compiègne but delivered in October 1809 to Fontainebleau, shortly before the Emperor's arrival there on 26th October for a stay of a little over two weeks; see Camille Le Prince, Napoléon Ier & la Manufacture de Sèvres (2016), p. 72, and p. 278 for the entry of 11 October 1809 in the Magasin de vente, including the composition of the service, which had a total value of 18,580 francs. Other table and coffee services were delivered to Fontainebleau at the same time, including a service with beau bleu ground that was also originally intended for Compiègne (S. Wittwer, Raffinesse & Eleganz (2007), cat. no. 64). In the imperial hierarchy, Fontainebleau ranked second among the country estates, just after Saint Cloud, and required furnishings commensurate with its importance (Le Prince, p. 72).

The service comprised 180 plates, thirty-six plates (without the butterfly and floral wreath in the centre) for mounting as fruit plates, sixteen compotiers (of which half had dolphin feet), four footed bowls, four sugar bowls with eagle heads, two ice pails with elephant heads, two ice coolers of "forme Olympique", four baskets "forme Jasmin" and four shallower baskets. An additional four sugar bowls "à dauphin olympique" were listed separately as a cost of 1400 francs, and four more plates were listed on 18 October 1809, and another on 25 March 1811 (Wittwer, ibid.).

Two other plates from the service were sold in these Rooms, 3 December 2008, lots 371 and 372, the first of which was acquired by the Château de Fontainebleau. Another plate was sold in these rooms 25 May 2011, lot 363, and two more on 12 December 2012, lots 238 and 240. A group of pieces from the service hitherto unrecorded in the literature and including one of the ice pails with elephant heads, two of the sugar bowls with eagle heads, one footed bowl, six compotiers, as well as twelve plates, was recently sold from the estate of David Rockefeller (Christie's New York, 9 May 2018, lot 118), apparently having been acquired by his mother, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, around 1940. A group of twelve plates were sold in these rooms on 5 July 2018, lot 223, and another set of twelve, 6 July 2021, lot 201.