A PAIR OF SEVRES BLEU CELESTE-GROUND SHELL-SHAPED DISHES FROM THE PRINCE DE ROHAN SERVICE (COMPOTIERS COQUILLES)

CIRCA 1771, ONE WITH INTERLACED BLUE L MARKS ENCLOSING DATE LETTER S, PAINTER’S MARK FOR FRANCOIS-JOSEPH ALONCLE, INCISED B

Details

Each painted with pairs of colourful birds perched on branches in landscape, within a circular cartouche gilt with oak leaves issuing from an uprooted trunk, within gilt rims
8 5/8 in. (22cm.) wide
Provenance

Acquired by Louis-René-Edouard, Prince (later Cardinal Prince) de Rohan in 1772.
Prince Anatole Demidov, Palazzo San Donato, Florence, sold; Pillet-Manheim, Paris, 23 March 1870, lot 135 (one illustrated) and possibly lot 136.
Possibly William, 1st Earl of Dudley, of Himley Hall, Dudley, Staffordshire.
Leopold de Rothschild, Exbury, Hampshire.
Anthony de Rothschild, Ascott Wing.
The Collection of Mrs. Jessie Woolworth Donahue, sold Sotheby's New York, 29 April 1972, lot 127.
The Antique Porcelain Company, New York.
The Collection of John D. Dorrance Jr., sold Sotheby's New York, 20 October 1989, lot 169.
Lot Essay

These compotiers coquilles form part of a lavish dessert service which was purchased by Louis-René-Edouard, prince de Rohan-Guémenée on 7 September 1772. The service comprised 368 pieces at a total cost of 20,772 livres and it included 24 compotiers, in three different shapes: 'ovales', 'carrés' and 'coquilles', each at a cost of 48 livres. The purchase coincided with Rohan's appointment as the French Ambassador Extraordinary to the court of Vienna from 1772 until 1774. The lavish decoration reflected the prince’s extravagant lifestyle, which ultimately scandalised the Empress Maria Theresa and her daughter, Marie-Antoinette, dauphine of France. The prince fell out of favour in the Austrian court and was recalled in 1774, following the death of Louis XV and succession of Louis XVI. He was later appointed Grand Almoner of France, Cardinal of Sainte Eglise Romaine (1778), Bishop of Strasbourg and the Saint Empire (1779) and Provisor of the Sorbonne (1782).
In the 19th century a large part of the service passed into the collection of Prince Anatole Demidov (1813-1870), of Palazzo San Donato, Florence, for which he paid 70,000 francs. 172 items from the prince's service, which included eight compotiers coquilles, were sold by Pillet-Mannheim, Paris on 23 March 1870, see lot 135 (one of the present compotier is illustrated) and lot 136. This part service was reportedly purchased by William, 1st Earl of Dudley, of Himley Hall, Dudley, Staffordshire. Some of these wares and possibly other parts of the service subsequently passed into the collections of members of the Rothschild family and were later dispersed, see David Peters, Sèvres Plates and Service of the Eighteenth Century, Little Berkhamsted, 2015, Vol. II, pp. 479-481. See also Geoffrey de Bellaigue, French Porcelain in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, London, 2009, Vol. II, p. 620-622 for a discussion of this service and see cat. no. 157, for a trial plate.
There are several compotiers coquilles from the Prince du Rohan service in public collections, including: two in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (one is dated 1771, see accession no. 1976.155.75); two dated 1771 are in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (accession nos. 65.1854-55) and another is in the Toledo Museum of Art (accession no. 1951-401).
François-Joseph Aloncle was a painter of birds and animals at Sèvres from 1758 to 1781.