CIRCA 1781, EACH WITH PUCE CROWNED INTERLACED L MARKS ENCLOSING DATE LETTER DD, PAINTER'S MARKS FOR JEAN-ARMAND FALLOT, INCISED W TO CUP

The decoration on the present cup and saucer relates directly to the birth of the Dauphin of France, Louis-Joseph Xavier François, son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Born on 22 October 1781 he was heir to the French throne but died just before his eighth birthday on 4 June 1781. Svend Eriksen and Geoffrey de Bellaigue state that in anticipation of the arrival of the Dauphin on September 1781, Bachelier was engaged in designing allegories and symbols which were used to commemorate the birth.¹ During the period 20 November 1781 to 25 March 1782 a range of cups and broth-basins were fired which were decorated with dolphins, fleur-de-lys and allegorical subjects which were likely to have been based on these sketches, see Eriksen and Bellaigue, Sèvres Porcelain, London, 1987, p. 134. A gobelet 'litron' and soucoupe decorated to celebrate the birth of the Dauphin and dated 22nd October 1781, is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, (accession no. 786. 1882).

Grand Duke Paul of Russia (son of Catherine the Great) and his wife Duchess Maria visited France in 1782. Using the pseudonyms Comte and Comtesse du Nord, they purchased 39 Sèvres cups and saucers. A gobelet litron decorated to commemorate the birth of the Dauphin and gilded by Le Guay, is in the collection of the Pavlovsk Museum and is illustrated by Pierre Ennès, see ‘The Visit of the Comte and the Comtesse du Nord to the Sèvres Manufactory,’ Apollo, March 1989, pp. 154, fig. 6. See also the gobelet 'litron' and soucoupe decorated to commemorate the visit of Les Dames des Halles to Versailles following the birth of the Dauphin in 1782, from the collection of Judith Howard, sold Woolley Wallis, Salisbury, 5 February 2020, lot 250 and subsequently with Errol Manners, London.

1. The allegorical devices used on the present cup and saucer are numerous and include: the lily, which was emblematic of France (and by extension Louis XVI), Innocence, Birth and Beauty and the rose, which was emblematic of Tender Love (and by extension, his mother, Marie Antoinette). The use of a dolphin or dauphin to represent the child is clear, however the translation of the rebus on the cup is not so straightforward. The garland forming the number 8, or 7 + 1, is emblematic of birth and regeneration, the numeral set between the crossed stems of a lily and of a rose. Equally, the numeral could represent infinity, reflecting the infinite power of the French throne and the future glory of the Dauphin. The upper loop of the numeral encloses the gilt zodiac symbol for Libra (23 September - 22 October), the sign covering the birth date of the Dauphin. The lower loop encloses two geese, in French deux oies, phonetically de roi or 'of the king'. In other words, a new generation (a son) born to the king under the sign of Libra, ready to lead France to future Glory.


Jean-Armand Fallot was a painter specialising in ground colours, birds, patterns and later also as a gilder at Sèvres from 1764 to 1790.