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A Sèvres plate with cameo centre, circa 1808 image 1
A Sèvres plate with cameo centre, circa 1808 image 2
Lot 240

A Sèvres plate with cameo centre, circa 1808

4 July 2024, 12:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

£1,000 - £1,500

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A Sèvres plate with cameo centre, circa 1808

Decorated with a plain red border outlined in gilding, the centre with a simple gold band enclosing a finely painted cameo en grisaille of Hera 23.6cm diam., M.Imp.le de Sevres 8 in red enamel to the base, incised marks and L. in red script (minor rubbing to gilding)

Footnotes

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.

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