Ask the Scholar

This tray is part of a tea service composed of a matching milk jug, sugar bowl, teapot, and cup and saucer. The tray would be used to transport the hot beverage and its condiments to the aristocratic consumer. The inclusion of the tray identifies this particular service as a déjeuner, a small, portable tea set. Tea sets sold without trays were simply referred to as small tea services. The size of the tray typically determined the number of pieces included in the set; all four elements of this déjeuner fit perfectly, albeit snuggly, on the elevated tray. Potters originally designed the plateau Bouret as an oversized saucer to hold ice cream cups and prevent condensation from pooling on the dining table, but they became fashionable elements of déjeuners in the 1770s. All pieces in the service are ornamented with a rose ground color and a continuous pattern of gold, white, and blue pointille (dots). Each piece contains large reserves, or areas reserved for imagery, filled with floral still lifes or intricately rendered birds of paradise. The tray presents one large reserve, featuring two birds: one perched in a tree and one exploring the forest floor. The factory and artist marks, which appear on the bottom of each piece in the tea service, combined with the rose ground color raise several questions about the dating of the tea service. The factory mark seems to belong to the Royal Manufactory of Sèvres’s precursor, the Vincennes Manufactory, which operated between 1740 and 1756. However, the artist’s mark identifies Buteux fils cadet as the set’s primary painter; he never worked at Vincennes. The rose-colored glaze, which dominates the surface of the entire service, came into production in 1757 at Sèvres. These three distinct, datable elements of the porcelain set do not clearly align, thereby making it challenging to accurately date this porcelain service. The quality of the painted ornamentation and sculpting, however, indicate that the Sèvres Manufactory did produce this set of wares. Perhaps, this tea service is simply a late-18th-century, rose-colored version of an earlier service produced at Vincennes.