8 - BREAST-SHAPED BOWL AND ITS TRIPOD FROM THE RAMBOUILLET DAIRY

BREAST-SHAPED BOWL AND ITS TRIPOD FROM THE RAMBOUILLET DAIRY Royal Porcelain Manufactory of Sèvres, 1787 The soft-paste porcelain bowl shaped like a breast, decorated with natural motifs, the hard-paste porcelain tripod decorated in black and purple with foliage scrolls and friezes of ovals and arrows in the Etruscan style on an ochre background known as “fond grès,” the tripod topped by three goat heads in relief with polychrome decoration. Marked beneath the tripod in blue: interlaced and crowned “LL,” the letter-date “KK” for 1787, and traces of a painter’s mark, likely that of Jean-Pierre Fumez. Height of the tripod: 7.3 cm, total height: 12 cm, diameter of the bowl: 13 cm The feet are missing; there are a few chips. Provenance - The dairy of Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI in Rambouillet - Marie Josèphe Rose, Marquise de Chanaleilles, née Carrère (1784–1867), sister of Marie Louise Zélie, Countess of Bouillé, née Carrère (1783–1869), lady-in-waiting to the Duchess of Berry. - Given by the Marquise de Chanaleilles to her grandson, General Ferdinand de Salles (1831–1925), according to a handwritten document. - Galerie Claude Meyer, Paris. This breast-shaped bowl on an antique tripod, known in the 18th century as a “jatte téton,” is the most famous and extravagant piece in the porcelain service created by the Royal Porcelain Manufactory of Sèvres for the dairy at the Château de Rambouillet at the end of the Ancien Régime. Four “jatte téton” bowls were delivered to Rambouillet in 1787 and 1788. Three of them are now held in public collections: two at the Musée de Sèvres and one at the Museo Duca di Martina in Naples. Nearly 250 years after its delivery, a fourth “woman’s breast-shaped bowl” has appeared on the Parisian market. The classical forms created for this service and their animal-themed decoration bring together the two sources of inspiration for this royal commission: a scholarly evocation of antiquity and the pastoral setting of a pavilion intended for the preparation and enjoyment of dairy products. Selma Schwartz’s in-depth research, first published in 1992[1], detailed in particular the origins of this set, the two deliveries made on May 25, 1787, and May 15, 1788, as well as the fate of some of the pieces after the Revolution. The Queen’s Dairy at Rambouillet Louis XVI acquired the Rambouillet estate from the Duke of Penthièvre in December 1783. There he found a prime hunting ground, close enough to Versailles to allow for frequent visits. A dairy was established near the Anglo-Chinese garden. According to a tradition reported with some reservation by Selma Schwartz, Louis XVI is said to have come up with the idea to encourage Marie-Antoinette to visit an estate she did not particularly care for. The project was overseen by the Count of Angiviller, Director General of the King’s Buildings, Governor of Rambouillet, and head of the Sèvres porcelain manufactory since 1779. Hubert Robert was involved in the design of the gardens and appears to have served as the artistic coordinator for the Dairy. Jacques-Jean Thévenin was in charge of construction, Pierre Julien of the sculpture, and Georges Jacob of the furnishings, which were executed according to Robert’s drawings. The architecture and furnishings of the Laiterie are strongly influenced by antiquity, drawing inspiration from the interior decorations and artifacts unearthed during the excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii. The Laiterie was part of the trend toward garden pavilions and country retreats in the second half of the 18th century. A pleasure dairy was then a select social gathering place, where people came to sample milk, cream, fresh cheeses, and frozen desserts. The grand dairies of the late 18th century each possessed their own table service: in Chantilly, the Prince of Condé had 148 pieces of porcelain and earthenware bearing his coat of arms; the Duke of Orléans had acquired a Wedgwood set in cane-ware; the set for the hamlet of Trianon was commissioned in 1786 from the porcelain manufactory on Rue Thiroux; and the financier Boutin served his dairy products on gold tableware. The Rambouillet Dairy Service is the only dairy service produced by the Royal Porcelain Manufactory of Sèvres in the 18th century and the first designed in the archaeological style[2]. The sequence of a domed rotunda and a room ending in a grotto creates a transition from regular architecture to a recomposed natural setting. Julien’s sculptures, the marbles, Jacob’s furniture, and the porcelain all contribute to a single design concept. Domestic animals are echoed in the painted decorations and sculpted elements of the service placed on the peripheral shelves, in the niches, and on the central table of the rotunda. The central table was then a round table made of solid mahogany, delivered by Georges Jacob on March 1, 1787[3], with four