Reserved with gilt-foliate scroll-edged cartouches painted with scenes of hunters in landscape, the cover with a gilt carnation knop
The pot: 3³⁄₄ in. (9.6 cm.) high
The stand: 7¹⁄₄ in. (18.4 cm.) wide

From a service probably acquired by King Louis XV of France in 1759, from Madame Lair, marchand-mercier.
Property of the Late Dowager Lady Raglan; sold Christie's, London, 3 July 1884, lot 27.
Baron Sir John Henry Schröder, 1st Baronet; sold, Christie's, London, 5 July 1910, lot 43 (to Rowe).

D. Peters, Sèvres Plates and Services of the 18th Century, Little Berkhamsted, 2015, vol. II, service list 59-3, pp. 321-324.

Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.

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Lot Essay

During the last quarter of 1759, Madame Lair (Marie Herbin), marchand-mercier on the rue du Roule, bought a small service decorated with a pink ground, hunting scenes and flowers which was described in the factory Sales Registers as 'Roze(s) Chasse', 'Roze(s) attributs de Chasse' and 'Roze(s) fleurs'. It included one 'moutardier et plateau' at a cost of 120 livres. While there is no record of Madame Lair's ultimate client, extensive research by David Peters suggests that this service was probably sold by Madame Lair to Louis XV and that it was kept in the royal household and added to by Louis XV's successor, Louis XVI. Indeed, on 16 July 1782, Louis XVI purchased for Versailles a seau à verre, a beurrier, a pot à sucre, and most significantly a couvercle de moutardier for 6 livres (mustard-pot cover) with decoration described as 'fond rose Paysage'. These items were probably intended as supplements or to replace broken pieces of a pink-ground service with landscapes already in the royal château. In addition, on 7 April 1789, Louis XVI bought two more pink ground ice-cups which are recorded in the archives as 'Replacement' for Versailles. These are also mentioned in a porcelain order (Archives Nationales, AN 01 3510) by Jean-Sèbastien Chavet, contrôleur du Gobelet du Roi, concerning intended 'remplacements' for the château de Rambouillet (rather than Versailles).

Known surviving items from the service, including the mustard-pot, cover and stand in the present lot, are dated 1758 and 1759 and have polychrome landscape scenes with hunting and shooting parties, some with a principal figure possibly representing Louis XV, who was a passionate huntsman and is known to have commissioned a number of other decorative works that show him engaged in his favourite pastime, including tapestries woven at the Gobelins, after designs by Jean-Baptiste Oudry.

A substantial group of surviving items probably from Madame Lair's purchase, including our mustard-pot, cover and stand, were sold at Christie's, London, 3 July 1884, the property of the late Dowager Lady Raglan (the mustard-pot, cover and stand was lot 27). Emily Harriet Wellesley-Pole was a niece of the Duke of Wellington and in 1814 married Fitzroy James Henry Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan of Raglan, who was secretary to the British Ambassador to France (the Duke of Wellington) from 1814 to 1815. Two seaux from the service are at Dalmeny House, Scotland; see John Whitehead, Sèvres at the Time of Louis XV: Birth of a Legend, Paris, 2010, p. 76, ill. and four plates and a seau à demi-bouteille also with a painter's mark for Jean Bouchet is in the Huntington Collection, San Marino, California, museum nos. 27.51 (seau marked for Bouchet), 27.52, and 27.54a/54b/55a/55b. For further discussion of the service, archival references and a list of surviving pieces see David Peters, Sèvres Plates and Services of the 18th Century, Little Berkhamsted, 2015, vol. II, service list 59-3, pp. 321-324.