CIRCA 1760, BLUE INTERLACED L MARK ENCLOSING DATE LETTER G, PAINTER'S DAGGER MARK FOR ETIENNE EVANS, INCISED 4970 INTO GLAZE ON BASE AT FOOTRIM

Following extensive research undertaken by Cyrille Froissart in the paper entitled 'Des Cuvettes Démasquées¹ it may be concluded that this form of cuvette with a partition, previously identified by Pierre Verlet as vase 'à compartiments ou Choisy', is in fact the cuvette 'Verdun' as seen in a drawing preserved in the Sèvres archives, showing the outline of the cuvette with the central partition.² The author notes that cuvettes 'Verdun' mentioned and described in the sales registers correspond more closely in terms of date and decoration with known examples of cuvettes with a partition than with those examples with the name vase 'à compartiments'. It has also been concluded in the same article that the oval flower vase of similar form but without a partition, previously known as cuvette 'Verdun', can be named as the previously unidentified cuvette 'Roussel' and that the previously called 'urne à facette' is in fact the vase 'à compartiments ou Choisy'.

For an oval flower vase with a partition of the same form as the present lot see Rosalind Savill, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, London, 1988, Vol. I, p. 99, C.226.

Etienne Evans was a painter of birds, animals and flowers active at Vincennes and Sèvres from 1752 to 1807.

1. Presented on 17 June 2014 at the French Porcelain Society study day in London (available in full online).
2. Inscribed 'caise à fleurs unÿe contourné fait le 7 mars 1754 par ordre de Mr de Verdun plus en juillet 1759 fait 2eme et 3eme grandeur'.