Lot Essay
Chestnut baskets are first recorded in the Sèvres archives in 1757 and remain in production until about 1790. They appear as part of services, for example the service for Marie-Theresa of Austria; or were sold individually, in pairs or occasionally in sets of four. The baskets were of openwork or pierced pattern to allow air to circulate around the contents. The Encyclopédie by Diderot and d'Alembert gives a contemporary account of their use:
'On sert dans les meilleurs tables, au dessert, les marrons rôtis sous la cendre; on les pele ensuite, & on les enduit de Suc d'orange, ou de limon avec un peu de sucre'
They were ordered by Louis XV, Louis XVI, Mme. Victoire and her sisters and Mme. de Pompadour amongst others.
The sales ledgers in the Sèvres archives record (Vy 3 fol. 7) in December 1759 ventes au comptant faite a Versailles/au Roy/1 maronniere fleurs et plateau 144 (livres)
The present maronnière from 1759/60 is very close in appearance to a slightly earlier example in the David collection, Copenhagen, see Svend Eriksen, The David Collection, French Porcelain (Copenhagen, 1980), p. 70, no. 54a. The decoration to the cover differs slightly from the bowl, the small gilt husks above the dentil rim on this basket do not appear on the David Collection basket, this may be an indication that the cover on this example is a replacement, supporting the theory that this is perhaps the maronnière for which a replacement cover was ordered in 1763 (Vy 3 fol. 156):
décembre 1763/Crédit au Roy/1 couvercle de maronnière 30 (livres)
See Rosalind Savill, The Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain (London, 1988), Vol. II, p. 762, note 21.
'On sert dans les meilleurs tables, au dessert, les marrons rôtis sous la cendre; on les pele ensuite, & on les enduit de Suc d'orange, ou de limon avec un peu de sucre'
They were ordered by Louis XV, Louis XVI, Mme. Victoire and her sisters and Mme. de Pompadour amongst others.
The sales ledgers in the Sèvres archives record (Vy 3 fol. 7) in December 1759 ventes au comptant faite a Versailles/au Roy/1 maronniere fleurs et plateau 144 (livres)
The present maronnière from 1759/60 is very close in appearance to a slightly earlier example in the David collection, Copenhagen, see Svend Eriksen, The David Collection, French Porcelain (Copenhagen, 1980), p. 70, no. 54a. The decoration to the cover differs slightly from the bowl, the small gilt husks above the dentil rim on this basket do not appear on the David Collection basket, this may be an indication that the cover on this example is a replacement, supporting the theory that this is perhaps the maronnière for which a replacement cover was ordered in 1763 (Vy 3 fol. 156):
décembre 1763/Crédit au Roy/1 couvercle de maronnière 30 (livres)
See Rosalind Savill, The Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain (London, 1988), Vol. II, p. 762, note 21.