CIRCA 1785, EACH WITH BLUE INTERLACED L MARKS, DATE LETTER HH AND GILDER'S MARKS FOR HENRI-MARTIN PREVOST, ONE WITH GILDER'S & PAINTER'S MARKS FOR ETIENNE-GABRIEL GIRARD AND EDME-FRANCOIS BOUILLAT, THE OTHER WITH PAINTER'S MARK FOR GUILLAUME NOEL, VARIOUS INCISED MARKS

The present seaux à verre are from a service presented by Louis XVI to his brother-in-law, Karl Anton Joseph Johann Stanislaus, Archduke of Austria and Viceroy of Lombardy. The Archduke, who was the older brother of Marie Antoinette, visited Paris between May and August 1786 with his consort Maria Beatrice, the Duchess of Massa and Princess of Carrara. While in Paris, they travelled under the assumed names of comte and comtesse de Nellembourg and the service was given as a diplomatic gift via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the occasion of their visit in June 1786.

The lavish service included 24 seaux à verre at a cost of 52 livres each and was accompanied with white biscuit figures, vases and other wares and it came to a total cost of 24,073 livres. A letter dated 13 June 1786 between Jean-Etienne de Montucla, assistant to the comte d'Angiviller, the Crown Minister responsible for the Sèvres factory and Antoine Régnier, the director of the factory, makes reference to a visit by the Archduke and Archduchess to the manufactory and the subsequent delivery of the service to a packer and agent for dispatch, see David Peters, Sèvres Plates and Services of the Eighteenth Century, Little Berkhamsted, 2015, Vol. IV, p. 791. The finished part of the service appears under 'Pièce terminée en 1785' in the factory's stocktaking inventory of 30 March 1786, which includes all but one of the seaux à verre. For a full discussion of the service, including details of dispersals in the 19th and 20th centuries see Peters, Ibid., 2015, Vol. IV, pp. 791-794.

A substantial part of what is almost certainly this service was sold at Christie's, London on 25 April 1882, lots 183-193. This included four 'large seaux' and two 'smaller ditto' (possibly seaux à verre), described 'with turquoise and gold bands and medallions of flowers'. A further part of the service which can be more clearly identified, was sold at Christie's, 8 July 1890, lot 32 and it included '3 seaux à topette' or 'à verre'. Another part of the service was sold at Christie's, London, 6 June 1929, lot 40 which included '2 seaux...'

Pieces from this service appear in several museum collections, see the assiette unie in the Musée du Louvre (inventory no. OA 11916), a seau à glace in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg and two assiettes unies in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (accession nos. L2012.193 and L2012.194).

Henri-Martin Prévost was a gilder at Sèvres from 1757 to 1797.
Etinenne-Gabriel Girard was a gilder and painter of flowers at Sèvres from 1762 to 1805.
Edme-François Bouillat (père) was a painter of flowers and birds at Sèvres from 1758 to 1810.
Guillaume Noël was a painter of flowers and patterns at Sèvres from 1755 to 1807.