ROYAL MANUFACTORY OF SEVRES Part of a service for the Châteaux of Saint Cloud and Compiègne in agate-blue porcelain decorated in gold with palmettes and foliage friezes, comprising a small covered frying pan and a covered sugar pot. The first is marked Sèvres 33 and stamped Château de St Cloud. The other is marked LP interlaced and crowned Sèvres 46, and N crowned gilded Sèvres 59. 19th century H: 9.5 and 4.5 cm (slight wear to the gilding) An agate-blue porcelain cup and saucer decorated in gold with a foliage frieze and monogrammed MB. Marked M.Imple de Sèvres 7 in red. 19th century H : 6.5 cm D : 17 cm (accident to handle, wear to gilding) The agate blue ground appeared on hard porcelain at Sèvres from 1773. It was then called bleu d'agathe. Among the first porcelains decorated with this new ground, in August 1773 King Louis XV purchased a pair of agate-blue ear vases in the third size, decorated with portraits of Madame and Madame Elisabeth. At the same time, a number of porcelains were described as having an agathe-gray or dauphin-gray and dauphine-gray background. In the 19th century, this background color was used again and again, associated with fashionable decorations such as historical scenes, cameo portraits, animals and flowers. In January 1832, a new agate-blue service was delivered for the Château de Saint-Cloud, then Compiègne from January 1833. It is described as an "agate blue background with a frieze of palmettes printed in gold rosettes in the middle of the pieces that are susceptible to them". The deliveries specify that it is intended for the Service du Roi. Between 1832 and 1847, several thousand pieces were delivered for these two residences.