
Sebastian Kuhn
Department Director
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£1,000 - £1,500

Department Director

Head of Department, Director

Sale Coordinator
The source for the many of the cameos painted on pieces from Sèvres services is the three-volume work Iconographique Grec (1811) by Ennio-Quirino Visconti, keeper of antiquities at the Louvre, which publication was commissioned by Napoleon himself (see: Wittwer Raffinesse & Eleganz (2007), p. 158f.).
Although not know if this plate was a sample plate for a larger service or indeed a one-off commission, it bears resemblance to the service given to the King of Württemberg by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1809. The King had remarked favourably about a service with cameo decoration he saw at the factory on his earlier visit to Paris, and it was added to the list of diplomatic gifts to the Württemberg Court; see C. Leprince, Napoléon I & Sèvres (2016), cat.no.128.