229 - VINCENNES, Circa 1755

VINCENNES, Circa 1755 Round cheese dish (also known as a fresh cheese drainer) and its hollow soft-paste porcelain tray, decorated in shades of blue accented with gold, featuring flowers, birds, medallions, and foliage motifs. Marked with interlaced, crowned “LL” initials and the date letter “B” on the reverse. Diameter of the cheese dish: 11.2 cm (excluding handle) – Height: 5.7 cm Diameter of the tray: 19.8 cm The molds for this model appear in the 1752 Sèvres inventory, where they are listed as “drainers for fresh cheese” and described as having the shape of “carved cheese dishes.” The model was produced in two sizes; ours is the second size (see Brunet, Préaud, *Sèvres: From Its Origins to the Present Day*, 1978, p. 141, no. 54). The factory archives mention selling prices ranging from 30 to 240 livres (for the first size with a sky-blue base). A few examples were sold during the year 1755 (notably to Lazare Duvaux, Gaudin, Monsieur de Verdun, and Bazin). Similar pieces bearing the same decoration, with or without the tray and marked “A,” are held at the Louvre Museum (inv. TH 1187 and TH 1188), the Sceaux Departmental Museum (inv. 86.6.8), and in a private collection in England (J. Gwilt, *Vincennes and Early Sèvres Porcelain. From the Belvedere Collection*: 2014, cat. 111). Expert: Mr. Michel VANDERMEERSCH