Nadia Bellingeri
Sale Manager, Private Sales & Themed Sales
Lot 79*
A Sèvres dessert plate from the service with 'vues de Suisse' given by Napoleon to his stepson, Eugène de Beauharnais, circa 1811
27 October 2021, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £27,750 inc. premium
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A Sèvres dessert plate from the service with 'vues de Suisse' given by Napoleon to his stepson, Eugène de Beauharnais, circa 1811
Decorated with a river landscape, titled on the reverse in black 'VUE DE VAL TRAVERS/ dans le Comté de Neuchâtel.', a gilt border of anthemia to the edge of the well, the rim painted with five panels depicting rose-ground medallions with classical profile portraits flanked by gilt foliate motifs and alternating with star motifs enclosing classical trophies, 23.7cm diam., 'M.Imp.le/ de Sevres/1811' stencilled in iron-red, incised letters and 8, J in iron-red inside footrim
Footnotes
Provenance:
Given by Napoleon to Eugène de Beauharnais, Napoleon's stepson and Viceroy to Italy, on 31 December 1811
The dessert service with views of Switzerland contained 72 plates overall, see Camille Leprince, Napoléon Ier & la Manufacture de Sèvres (2016), no. 175. Another example is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accession no. 2006.189. It was of particular technical interest, due to the combination of transfer printing (outlines) and hand-painting in its decoration, a technique not often used in the factory's production.
The view on the present lot is taken from an 18th century engraving after Claude-Louis Châtelet, which was published in Tableaux de la Suisse, ou voyage pittoresque fait dans les XIII cantons du Corps Helvétique, Tome Troisième by Béat Fidèle Antoine Jean Dominique de La Tour-Châtillon de Zurlauben (1720 - 1799) in collaboration with Jean-Benjamin de Laborde (1734 - 1794).
