Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Plate

CultureFrench
Titles
  • Plate
  • from the Service Arabesque
  • Assiette Octogone
  • from: the Service Arabesque
Date1784
PlaceFrance
MediumSoft-paste porcelain
Dimensions15/16 × 9 3/8 × 9 3/8 in. (2.4 × 23.8 × 23.8 cm)
Credit LineThe Rienzi Collection, museum purchase funded by Carol C. Ballard, Rose and Harry H. Cullen, Isla and Tommy Reckling, Jas A. Gundry, Mr. and Mrs. E. J. Hudson, Jr., Mrs. Thomas W. Blake, Mr. and Mrs. Rodney H. Margolis, Mr. and Mrs. David Beveridge, Harriett S. Goodman, Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff, and Maria Burke Butler, with additional funds provided by Mr. and Mrs. Harris Masterson III, by exchange
Object number2008.349
Not on view

Explore Further

Department
Rienzi
Object Type
Description

In 1782, Louis XVI commissioned from the Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory the last of three royal services, for use at the Château de Versailles. By the time of the French Revolution, more than 100 pieces had been completed.


The service was in the fashionable Neoclassical taste, complete with arabesque decoration based on details from frescoes in the Vatican by Raphael. Because of the innovative nature of the service, with unusual new shapes and unique painting to each piece, production at Sèvres moved slowly. Although the service was never completed amidst the turmoil of the French Revolution, in 1795 the existing pieces, which included 51 plates, were given to the Prussian foreign minister. This plate is one of only five from the original 51 known to have survived.


ProvenanceHector Binney Collection; [Sotheby's London, December 5, 1989, lot 136]; purchased by MFAH, 2008.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Crossed "L"s marked on the underside in blue with the date letters GG

Paper sticker on the underside: "11"

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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