THREE SEVRES WHITE BISCUIT PORCELAIN SMALL URNS AND COVERS FROM THE SURTOUT-DE-TABLE MADE FOR THE MARRIAGE OF THE DAUPHIN, LOUIS AUGUSTE AND MARIE ANTOINETTE

CIRCA 1769, ONE WITH TWO INCISED X MARKS TO BASE

Details

Modelled by Josse-François-Joseph Le Riche, after Duplessis, each of compressed urn-shaped form, with acanthus moulded cover, applied with ribbon-tied garlands of flowers and roundels, on spreading circular foot
2 3/4 in. (7 cm.) high
Provenance

Probably acquired by the merchand-mercier Madame Lair in 1770.
Lot Essay

The marriage of the Dauphin, Louis Auguste, future Louis XVI (1754-93) and his wife, Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), the Archduchess of Austria on 16 May 1770 at the chapel of the château de Versailles, marked the starting point of a series of elaborate celebrations. That evening, a great wedding banquet took place at the new Opéra building and at the centre of the royal feast, on a large dining table was a monumental Sèvres white biscuit porcelain surtout-de-table. Formed as a colonnade made up of 56 Doric order columns, it was centred by a biscuit figure of Louis XV styled as a Roman Emperor, after Pigalle's sculpture in the Place Royale in Reims. This centrepiece was flanked by a number of different elements, including groups of putti garlanding columns and vases, putti emblematic of the seasons, mythological figures and a figural fountain of the Three Graces, all set within miniature gardens on a mirrored base. A contemporary drawing of the surtout by Moreau le Jeune illustrates twin columns and 16 'cassolettes'. The Enfants à la Colonne', or 'groupe Bachelier' as it became known, first appears in factory records in December 1769 and it is thought that this model was used as a supporting base for small urns or vases, such as the present lot. For an example in this configuration, in the Musée des Art décoratifs, Paris, see Emile Bourgeois, Le Biscuit de Sèvres, Paris, 1909, Vol. II, pl. 30 (MAD Paris, Inv. 3136). It is possible that the present lot were three of the 16 'cassolettes' noted above or they may be three of the 14 vases 'à guirlandes', each intended to sit on top of a pedestal that would have adorned the garden surrounding the surtout. The 14 vases 'à guirlandes' and their socles appear in factory records in December 1769 'en extraordinaire', by the turner Delâtre.
After the royal wedding, in the second half of 1770, the Sèvres Sales Registers record the sale of the majority of the surtout and its various elements to the merchand-mercier Madame Lair, at a total cost of 11,164 livres. Madame Lair's accounts note her purchase of eight groups of children to furnish the corners of the surtout at 60 livres each and 16 'petit vases pour la couronnement' at 48 livres each. It seems probable that she assembled smaller surtouts from these individual elements which she then sold on. Today the marble, glass and bronze mounted surtout is in the château de Versailles. For an extensive discussion of the surtout and illustrations of its design, see Pierre Ennès, 'Le surtout de mariage en porcelaine de Sèvres du Dauphin 1769-1770', Revue de L'Art, 1987, no. 76, pp. 63-73.