THE PORCELAIN CIRCA 1771-72, THE DECORATION POSSIBLY LATER, BLUE INTERLACED L MARKS, BLUE AXE MARK

Prince Louis de Rohan ordered a lavish dinner and dessert service from the Sèvres factory on 7 September 1772 and this purchase coincided with his appointment as the French Ambassador Extraordinary to the court of Vienna from 1772 to 1774. Comprising 368 pieces at a total cost of 20,772 livres, the extensive service included six seaux crénelés, each costing 204 livres. The assiettes and other service wares are decorated with the prince's monogram and gilt with oak leaves and acorn garlands issuing from an uprooted shattered oak tree trunk, said to be emblematic of the capability to flourish when displaced.¹ The lavish decoration reflected the prince’s extravagant lifestyle, which ultimately scandalised Empress Maria Theresa and her daughter, Marie Antoinette, dauphine of France. The prince fell out of favour in the Austrian court and he was recalled to France 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).

David Peters discusses surviving components of the Prince du Rohan service and a number of other wares that are associated with the service, including later decorated items and 19th century copies, see Peters, Ibid., 2015, Vol. II, p. 479-481. Although professional opinion is divided regarding the dating of the decoration on the present lot, recent XRF testing has concluded that the decoration is 18th century in date.

In the 19th century the present seau crénelé, together with a large portion of this service, passed into the collection of Prince Anatole Demidov (1813-1870), of Palazzo San Donato, Florence. The prince paid 70,000 francs for this large part service. 172 items from this group were subsequently sold by Pillet-Mannheim, Paris on 23 March 1870, see lot 128 for the present lot, which is one of two seaux crénelés illustrated in the catalogue. This part service is reported as 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.

An undated seau crénelé is in the Kansas Museum of Art, Kansas City (accession no. 44-14-6) and another undated example is in the Toledo Museum of Art (accession no. 1951-401). See also the seau crénelé from The Estate of Jessie Woolworth Donahue, Southampton, sold Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc., New York, 28 April 1972, lot 134 and another, possibly with later decoration (from the Rothschild, Gellert and Dr Chase Collections) sold Christie's, New York, 23 May 2002, lot 8.



Painter's axe mark for Pierre-Joseph Rosset (l'aîné), who was a painter of flowers, landscapes, birds and patterns at Sèvres from 1753 to 95.

1. See David Peters, Sèvres Plates and Services of the Eighteenth Century, Little Berkhamsted, 2015, Vol. II, p. 479.