SÈVRES

Set of 10 porcelain soup plates, agate blue background, decorated on the rim with a frieze of gold palmettes and in the center with a rosette with palmettes, edged with gold fillets. Firing chips and cracks. Manufacture royale de Sèvres, 1832, 1833, 1834, 1844 and 1845. Dated marks in blue with King Louis-Philippe's cipher, marks in red "Château de St Cloud" and "Château de Compiègne", gilder's marks Moyez. D. 24 cm. Provenance Service of King Louis-Philippe at the Châteaux of Saint-Cloud and Compiègne. History Louis-Philippe's first order for one of his residences came relatively early: in April and June 1832, the Sèvres manufactory was asked to supply a 1036-piece service (including 300 dinner plates) for the Château de Saint-Cloud, despite the King's lack of interest in this residence. The choice of this palace is certainly explained by the fact that it had strangely lacked a service worthy of the royal table since Louis XVI's miniature, mozaic service. Indeed, Josephine took the brown-red service with flowers from Malmaison after Redouté (1805), Cardinal Fesch received the lapis-blue service with heads imitating the cameo initially intended for Saint-Cloud (1808) and Compiègne recovered the gold service with garlands of flowers initially intended for the Clodaldian residence (1809). This was the beginning of the interconnections between Compiègne and Saint-Cloud, as Louis-Philippe decided to deliver the same service with an agate-blue background, a frieze of palmettes printed in gold, and a rosette in the middle of the pieces likely to be used at Compiègne, as early as January 1833 (2218 pieces). Under the Restoration, the "capraire" service was used in both residences. This similar choice obliged the Maison du Roi, in a letter dated January 31, 1833, to ask the Manufacture to differentiate the destination of each piece by means of an "inscription underneath", which would in fact be a red stamp on the reverse, alongside the Manufacture's usual manufacturing and decorative marks. This decision, which was unique in the history of royal services in France, was applied to all of King Louis-Philippe's table services, with the exception of the Bals service and only the dessert services (ordered by the King as such, although all the royal table services were in fact starter and dessert services).