228 - RARE BUTTER DISH AND BUTTER DISH TRAY

RARE BUTTER DISH AND BUTTER DISH TRAY Circular lidded butter dish in soft porcelain with polychrome decoration featuring birds in flight within medallions surrounded by garlands of flowers, insects, and gold clasps on a lapis blue background, with gold serrated borders. Marked on the underside with interlaced “LL,” a blue dot, and an incised “4” (?). Vincennes Manufactory, 18th century, circa 1750–1753. Height: 6.1 cm – Diameter: 10.6 cm (Minor visible imperfections, including a small chip on the lid) Included is a circular butter dish made of soft-paste porcelain, featuring a polychrome decoration of birds within medallions on a lapis blue background. The medallions and borders are embellished with gilded foliage and flowers. Gold serrated trim along the edges. Underglaze marks: interlaced “LL” and an ampersand (mark attributed to the painter Michel Socquet), a blue dot, and an incised “4” (?). Vincennes Manufactory, 18th century, circa 1750–1753. Diameter: 20.4 cm (Minimal wear) Description: Our butter dish and its accompanying tray are comparable to two very similar pieces dated 1755, held at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris [Inv. No. 31678.A and 31678.B], whose shapes, dimensions, and decoration are particularly similar. This similarity is further reinforced by the marks: the museum’s tray also bears the distinctive double “LL” intertwined in a thick line, applied under the glaze, while the incised “4” found on our two pieces is also present on the butter dish at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. Our butter dish tray also bears an ampersand, a painter’s mark traditionally associated with Michel Socquet. Recent research by David Peters suggests that the bird decorator who used this mark was indeed this painter. Socquet is first documented at the Vincennes factory from May to September 1753, before returning there in 1756 and then continuing his work in Sèvres. This mark, combined here with a bird motif characteristic of early pieces with colored backgrounds, thus provides valuable insight into dating the tray to the early years of this style.