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Lot Essay
This dish probably belonged to a substantial service ordered by Jean-Joseph de Laborde, vidame of Chartres and seigneur of la Ferté-Vidame and the baronnies of Méréville in beauce and of Laborde in Bourgogne. This Spanish-born wealthy merchant and financier from Bayonne later became banquier de la Cour of King Louis XV and from June 1759 a fermier-général. De Laborde maintained strong business connections with the country of his birth and provided finance for the French government during and after the Seven Years War, including negotiation of a loan from Ferdinand VI, King of Spain in 1758.
The service was accompanied by a déjeuner Duplessis, additional cups and saucers and other pieces as well as twenty-seven biscuit sculptures, the total cost amounting to 13,101 livres. On 10 July 1761 the Sales Register lists plats de hors d'oeuvre at 42 livres each, amongst various dinner and dessert wares of the same cost. An apparent supplement to the service was delivered to de Laborde five months later on 24 December 1761 and this lists a further 8 plats de hors d'oeuvre costing 84 livres. See David Peters, Sèvres Plates and Services of the 18th Century, Little Berkhamsted, 2005, Vol. II, pp. 325-326, service no. 61-2, and pp. 333-334, service no. 61-6, for a full listing and discussion of the two parts of the service. The author suggests that since de Laborde ordered supplements to the service in both 1761 and again in 1783 then it is most likely that he 'retained the service, rather than acted as an intermediary in the transmission of the service to a recipient in Spain' and that 'the gift was perhaps to him personally and in that case possibly in recognition of the significant financial assistance he provided'.
A dish of the same form as the present lot and similarly decorated, which bore the date letter D for 1757 (probably part of a service given by Louis XV of France to Frederik V, King of Denmark and Norway) was amongst five dishes in lot 38 (which also included the present lot) in the 1966 Rothschild sale at the Palais Galliéra and was subsequently sold at Christie's, New York on 21 November 2005, lot 268. A seau à liqueur from the de Laborde service was sold at Christie's in Paris on 14 December 2004, lot 82.
Dominique Joffroy was a painter of flowers and figures active at Vincennes and Sèvres from 1753 to 1770.
The service was accompanied by a déjeuner Duplessis, additional cups and saucers and other pieces as well as twenty-seven biscuit sculptures, the total cost amounting to 13,101 livres. On 10 July 1761 the Sales Register lists plats de hors d'oeuvre at 42 livres each, amongst various dinner and dessert wares of the same cost. An apparent supplement to the service was delivered to de Laborde five months later on 24 December 1761 and this lists a further 8 plats de hors d'oeuvre costing 84 livres. See David Peters, Sèvres Plates and Services of the 18th Century, Little Berkhamsted, 2005, Vol. II, pp. 325-326, service no. 61-2, and pp. 333-334, service no. 61-6, for a full listing and discussion of the two parts of the service. The author suggests that since de Laborde ordered supplements to the service in both 1761 and again in 1783 then it is most likely that he 'retained the service, rather than acted as an intermediary in the transmission of the service to a recipient in Spain' and that 'the gift was perhaps to him personally and in that case possibly in recognition of the significant financial assistance he provided'.
A dish of the same form as the present lot and similarly decorated, which bore the date letter D for 1757 (probably part of a service given by Louis XV of France to Frederik V, King of Denmark and Norway) was amongst five dishes in lot 38 (which also included the present lot) in the 1966 Rothschild sale at the Palais Galliéra and was subsequently sold at Christie's, New York on 21 November 2005, lot 268. A seau à liqueur from the de Laborde service was sold at Christie's in Paris on 14 December 2004, lot 82.
Dominique Joffroy was a painter of flowers and figures active at Vincennes and Sèvres from 1753 to 1770.