317 - PLATE FROM KING LOUIS-PHILIPPE’S SERVICE AT THE CHÂTEAU DE TRIANON

PLATE FROM KING LOUIS-PHILIPPE’S SERVICE AT THE CHÂTEAU DE TRIANON A calibrated hard-paste porcelain plate; the rim is decorated with five cartouches of lifelike painted flowers, alternating with Oriental-style arabesque motifs in brilliant gold; the center of the plate features a gilded rosette, adorned in the center with a polychrome bouquet of roses, with a gold border around the rim. Good condition, slight wear to the gilding. Royal Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory, July Monarchy period, 1846. Marked with a green stamp bearing the monogram “LP” beneath a royal crown and dated (18)46 in green; painter’s mark “B(our)geois” for Bourgeois (active between 1846 and 1848). Diameter: 24 cm. Provenance Table service for King Louis-Philippe at the Grand Trianon Palace in Versailles. History The ceremonial service of the Grand Trianon was commissioned late in the reign of Louis-Philippe, as it was requested by a letter from the King dated February 12, 1847. It is described in the Manufactory’s records as having a “white background, gold-printed ornamentation, and polychrome floral motifs on the rim and in the center of the pieces” and was to comprise a total of 380 plates. It is the most lavishly gilded of the table services commissioned by Louis-Philippe. A sample plate was delivered to the sovereign on April 3 of that same year; the remaining 379, scheduled for delivery on July 13, 1848, were never delivered, as the King abdicated on February 24. Following the fall of the July Monarchy, the plates were finally delivered to the Ministry of the Interior in September 1850 (180 plates) and to the Ministry of Agriculture in December 1850 (120 plates). The 120 plates from the Ministry of Agriculture were ultimately transferred in 1852 to the household of the Emperor (Napoleon III). Recently, 48 plates were purchased through preemption on September 25, 2020, at Daguerre, and are now held by the National Museum of the Palaces of Versailles and Trianon; they are currently on display at the Grand Trianon (inv. V 6143 and V 2020.22). Bibliography B. Delcourte and B. Sarrazin, *Le Grand Trianon*, RMN-Grand-Palais-Château de Versailles, 2023, pp. 100–101.