The first, 'La Marchande de crème', depicting a woman selling small cups of ice cream; the second, 'L'Écaillère,' depicting a hooded woman shucking oysters, further oyster-filled baskets at her feet
9 in. (23 cm.) high, the ice cream seller

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Lot Essay

La Marchande de crème is part of a series executed after four figures installed in the dairy at Château Crècy for Madame de Pompadour, maîtresse-en-titre and close personal advisor to Louis XV. The original four figures titled la Laitière, la Batteuse de beurre, la Jardinière au vase and la Fermière (or la Marchande d'oeufs) were executed after drawings by François Boucher. While la Marchande de crème is one of the original four figures, it is analogous to la Laitière and has a terracotta form created in 1755, still in the Sèvres archives today. For further information see the exhibition catalogue Falconet á Sèvres 1757-1766 ou l'art de plaire, Sèvres, Museé national de céramique, 2001, pp. 20 and 46-47 (illustrated) and 113, no. 35 and T. Préaud and G. Sherf, La Manufacture des Lumières: La sculpture à Sèvres de Louis XV à la Révolution, Dijon, 2015, pp. 96-99.

For an illustration of l'Écaillère, see É. Bourgeois and G. Lechevallier-Chevignard, Le Biscuit de Sevres, pl. 1, no. 199. Also see pl. 4, no. 406 for la Marchande de crème.