Lot 99: A SEVRES PORCELAIN ORNITHOLOGICAL 'FOND POINTILLE VERD' SHELL-SHAPED DISH FROM THE 'AUCKLAND' SERVICE (COMPOTIER COQUILLE)

A SEVRES PORCELAIN ORNITHOLOGICAL 'FOND POINTILLE VERD' SHELL-SHAPED DISH FROM THE 'AUCKLAND' SERVICE (COMPOTIER COQUILLE)
Blue interlaced L's enclosing date letters ii for 1786, painter's mark for Rosset, gilder's mark for Chauvaux, incised 20
The center with Cangara huppé, de la Guiane., named on the underside
8¾ in. (22.2 cm.) long

Gift of Louis XVI to William Eden, envoy from the Court of St James to the Court of Versailles, 1786.

The present dish is from the service identified in 1977 by Sir Geoffrey de Bellaigue and recently reconfirmed through research in the Sèvres archives as the 'Auckland Service' - a gift of Louis XVI to the wife of William Eden. At the time serving as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Versailles, Eden was created 1st Baron Auckland in 1793. The king's gift was in recognition of Eden's successful negotiation of the Treaty of Navigation and Commerce between England and France, signed 26 September 1786.

Wedgwood blue jasper portrait medallions of Lord and Lady Auckland are offered as lot 415 in the present sale.

The service is described in the factory's records of 1786 as fond pointillé verd, et Oiseaux Buffon, a reference to the graphic source for the bird decoration, the comte de Buffon's nine volumes on birds, which formed part of his larger work, Histoire naturelle génèrale et particulière des animaux, published between 1770 and 1783.

Pierre-Joseph Rosset is recorded at Sèvres from 1753-99 as painter of flowers, landscapes and patterns.

Michael-Barabé Chauvaux is recorded at Sèvres from 1752-88 as a gilder.

The 'Auckland' Service has been sold several times by Christie's:

16 July 1814, London: at the estate sale of Willian Eden, 1st Baron Auckland, the service sold to Lord Yarmouth, acting on behalf of King George IV, for 740 guineas. It was almost immediately put on display at Carlton House, where it was admired by Mary Frampton at a ball in honor of the Duke of Wellington (Geoffrey de Bellaigue, French Porcelain in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, London, 2009, p. 21.). De Bellaigue makes no mention of how the service left the royal collection, presumably sold to Lionel de Rothschild prior to his death in 1879.

20 June 1975, London: A large part of the service, from the Edmund de Rothschild Collection, inherited from his great-grandfather Lionel, was sold as lot 85.

11 November 1977, New York: A portion of the service from the collection of Elinor Dorris Ingersoll was sold as lots 24 and 25, now in an English private collection.

In his article of 1977 ('A Diplomatic Gift', The Connoisseur, No. 784, June 1977, pp. 92-99), Geoffrey de Bellaigue identified the 1975 and 1977 lots as the service given to William Eden and acquired by the English king in 1814. This identification was later corroborated by evidence found in the factory's archive. See David Peters, Sèvres Plates and Services of the 18th Century, 2005, vol. II, no. 87-1 for a service of this description noted in the factory's records as delivered via the comte de Montmorin (the French Minister for Foreign Affairs) to Mr. EYDEN.

In her article 'Another Diplomatic Gift', Apollo, April 1980, pp. 288-297, Aileen Dawson continues the discussion, noting that Sèvres registers for the years 1780-90 reveal that few services of this pattern were made and that the Eden service was unique. She calls attention to a second service, delivered to Monsieur Le Fevre, a merchant in Amsterdam, on 29th December 1784, similarly decorated but with the addition of birds reserved on the green Taillandier border. A plate and other pieces from a third variant service, now in the Musée Nissim de Camondo, Paris, is illustrated by Marcelle Brunet and Tamara Préaud, Sèvres, Des origines à nos jours, 1978, pp. 216-219.