Louis XV “Lapis” service
In the catalogue of the exhibition Versailles et tables royales en Europe, David Peters highlighted the existence of a service decorated with fruits and flowers on a lapis caillouté ground in the French royal collection. The proof was provided by an inventory of Versailles of 1782 mentioning a service Bleu Lapis et Or, part of which is described as "Porcelaine d'office" including 4 compotiers coquille, 4 compotiers ronds, 1 sucrier et 37 assiettes, [4 shell-shaped dishes, 4 round saucer dishes, 1 sugar bowl and 37 plates], another part is described as ‘Porcelaine en Magasin’ including: 2 seaux à bouteille, 2 seaux à demi-bouteille, 2 verrières, 9 tasses à glace et 2 jattes à hors d’œuvre [2 bottle coolers, 2 half-bottle coolers, 2 glass coolers, 9 ice-cream cups, and 2 oval dishes].
In January 1784, the service Bleu Lapis et Or is lent from Versailles, probably to the Château de La Muette (Archives nationales O1 3510). The service then returned to Versailles in May 1784 except for the two glass coolers, the four round saucer dishes and three plates. In 1791 and 1792, King Louis XVI, then installed at the Tuileries palace, purchased from Sèvres additions to complete this service described as Beau Bleu, Groupes fleurs or Caillouté et fleurs et fruits. Several porcelains with beau bleu caillouté ground dated for 1791 and 1792 are linked with purchases by Louis XVI, for example a double salt, salière double, dated 1792 kept at Woburn Abbey; a plate dated 1792 seen at Masterpiece London in 2017 with John Whitehead, and also a sucrier de Mr le Premier with a lapis ground dated 1769 but with a beau bleu ground replacement cover from 1791 (sold Bonhams, London, June 14, 2000, lot 233). A number of porcelains at Woburn Abbey dating from 1767 and 1770 and decorated with flowers and fruits on lapis caillouté ground may correspond to the service owned by Louis XV which was completed by his grandson Louis XVI. The Lapis service seems to have been bought by Louis XV from the marchands-mercier Madame Lair or Simon-Philippe Poirier, who each bought a service in 1770 which could correspond and each of them included four bottle coolers at 204 livres each.
Christian VII “Lapis” service
In November 1768, Christian VII, King of Denmark and Norway, went to Paris under the incognito title of Prince of Travendahl. During his stay at the Hotel d'York, the nineteen-year-old king received numerous gifts from King Louis XV, including carpets from the Savonnerie, tapestries from the Gobelins and a large Sèvres porcelain dinner service decorated with flowers on a lapis pebble ground. The service seems to have been accepted by Christian VII after a three-hour visit to the Sèvres factory on 9 November 1768. In July of the following year, other pieces of this service were delivered to the young king after his return to Denmark. The part of the service delivered in 1768 did not include bottle coolers, while four bottle coolers were delivered in 1769 for 204 livres each. A large group of the Danish king's service is preserved in Rosenborg Castle and Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen but none of the coolers are present today.
Two bottle coolers also painted by Charles-Louis Méreaud with flowers and fruits on a lapis caillouté ground dated 1769 are now in Clandon Park, Surrey. Two coolers dated 1769 were sold by Christie's, London, March 27, 1868 lot 134, a bottle cooler sold at Christie's, London July 12, 1901, lot 61, and two bottle coolers dated 1769 sold by Christie's, London, April 26, 1934, lot 3. The coolers sold in 1868 and 1934 could be the present ones and or those at Clandon Park. For a plate from the King Christian VII service, see Christie's, New York, September 16, 2020, lot 10
COMPARABLE LITERATURE
David Peters, 'Les services de porcelaines de Louis XV et Louis XVI', Versailles et les Tables Royales en Europe, XVIIème - XIXème siècles, exhibition catalogue, Châteaux de Versailles. 1993, p.115.
Geoffrey de Bellaigue, French Porcelain in the collection of Her Majesty the Queen, London, 2009, Vol. II, p. 584.
Pierre Verlet, Sèvres, le XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1953, pl. 63.