The title of this rare lobed sugar-bowl and cover can be identified from a drawing held in the archives at Sèvres, named ‘sucrier Berryer’ (the drawing is illustrated by Tamara Préaud and Antoine d'Albis, La Porcelaine de Vincennes, Paris, 1991, p. 165, no. 154). The sales registers record that the first two examples were sold to an anonymous buyer on 15 October 1753 for 54 livres each. Two more, decorated with flowers, were delivered to Lazare Duvaux in December 1754, costing 72 livres each and two others, also painted with flowers, were sold to the dealer Gaudin in May 1755 for 60 livres each. The same year, the dealer Machard bought three sucriers Berryer in November and December, also for 60 livres each. It is interesting to note that Jean de Boullongne (1690-1769), then intendant des Finances, owned two examples of this rare shape; when Duvaux bought the two ‘sucriers Berryers fleurs’ at 72 livres each (or 144 livres for both) in December 1754, he also bought two beurriers at 48 livres each (96 livres for both). His Livre-journal then records what was probably their subsequent sale on 28 December 1754 (the two ‘sucriers blancs’ for 144 livres and two beurriers for 96 livres) to ‘M de Boulogne’ (entry no. 2015 in the Livre-journal).

The bowl and cover are painted with flower sprays and insects in a naturalistic style indicative of manufacture around 1753 and known at the factory as bouquets detachés (see R. Savill, Everyday Rococo: Madame de Pompadour & Sèvres Porcelain, vol. I, Norwich, 2021, p. 281). By 1754-55, the flower sprays became smaller, more stylized, and were less often combined with fruit or insects. The decoration on the present lot is the same as that employed on a dinner and dessert service bought direct from Vincennes by Madame de Pompadour on 12 March 1753 (Savill, ibid. pp. 278-279). Her service also featured blue feathered borders, which were introduced at the factory by Jean Hellot in July 1751. Combined with the scattered flower sprays and gilt rims this decoration was to become a standard pattern on table wares up until the French Revolution.

Another example of a bowl and cover of this rare form, also painted with flowers (by Caton) and bearing a date letter A for 1754, was offered at Christie’s, New York, on 22-23 October 2003, lot 593.