English Frog
Unrecorded plate from the "Frog Service" Made for Catherine the Great of Russia, Empress of Russia
Joshia Wegdwood
Etruria, Staffordshire, England
Circa 1773-1774
Creamware
Diam. 9 in; 23 cm
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Provenance
French private collection
Twinight Collection, New York, U.S.A.
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Commissioned in 1773 from Josiah Wedgwood in partnership with Thomas Bentley, this elegant service consists 944 pieces, 680 for the dinner service and 264 for the dessert. At Catherine's request the hand-painted decoration showed British scenes, copied from prints, with a total of 1,222 views. In addition each piece had a green frog within a shield, a reference to the name of the palace it was intended for.
The price agreed was £2,290, which was low for such a large service with so much painting. Wedgwood's direct costs were £2,612, and in the end he received just over £2,700, a very meagre profit. But the reputational value to the firm was enormous. Some pieces were retained by Wedgwood for various reasons: trial pieces, some dessert pieces painted with the dinner border, some perhaps as the view was thought not sufficiently interesting.
The great majority of pieces are now in the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, where many are on display.
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Acquired by the Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM), Missouri, U.S.A.
Ice pail with Elephant-head from the Dessert Service ‘Gold Marly with Grey-painted Laurel Leaves and Cameo-style Heads”: Mercury and Perseus
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Sèvres
Imperial manufactory of porcelain
1809
Hard-paste porcelain, enamels and gold
Provenance
Gift from Napoleon I to King Frederick I of Württemberg
European private collection
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This ice pail, long ago one of a pair, was part of a dessert service named “Marly d’Or with Grey-painted Laurel Leaves and Cameo-style Heads” that Napoleon presented to Frederick I, King of Württemberg, in 1809. In December of that year, following the Austrian campaign, that monarch, who was a loyal ally of the Emperor, travelled to Paris. Invited to visit the Sèvres Manufactory’s workshops, he caught sight of the decoration of the service, then in the process of being made, and was quite taken by it. Originally intended for another purpose, the Imperial Household administration decided to add it to the list of gifts Napoleon, for reasons of diplomacy, wished to send Frederick as a token of his friendship.
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Imperial Tea-Set
Sèvres
Imperial manufactory of porcelain
Hard porcelain, enamels, gold, silver-gilt
Portraits painted by Marie-Victoire Jaquotot, Pierre-André Le Guay and Jean Georget.
Circa 1812
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Provenance
Acquired by Emperor Napoleon I in July 1812, this cabaret was offered by the Empress Marie-Louise to the Queen Mother on the occasion of New Year 1813.
American private collection
Twinight collection, New York
Musée Napoléon, Fontainebleau
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Located at Chateau Fontainebleau
Featured in Review of Museums of France
Sèvres
Imperial manufactory of porcelain
Hard porcelain, enamels and gold
Circa 1810-1812
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Provenance
Gifted on the occasion of New Year 1813 by the Emperor to the Duchess of Montebello, widow of Marshal Jean Lannes.
Private collection, France.
Twinight collection, New York.
Musée Napoléon, Fontainebleau
Once attributed to Angarano, a small town in the Veneto, this very characteristic production of,
most usually, capriccio views decorated in strong colours of blue, green, yellow and manganese
has for some time now been proved to belong to Pavia in Lombardy. Siro Antonio Africa (active
1686 until his death in 1737) was a prolific and accomplished painter on maiolica.
Located at Chateau Fontainbleau
Imperial Promenade
Plate from the Service Cambacérès painted with a view of Fontainebleau castle titled:
Vue de l’étang de Fontainebleau et de la cour des Fontaines dans l’éloignement
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Sèvres, Imperial manufactory of porcelain
Painted by Jean-François Robert
Hard-paste porcelain, enamels and gold
Mark: red stamp M. Imple / de Sèvres
Titled in black : Vue de l’Étang de Fontainebleau et de / la Cour des Fontaines dans l’Éloignement
1806
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Fontainebleau. Château de Fontainebleau, musée Napoléon Ier. Inv. F 2015.5.
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The Imperial Manufacture of Sèvres delivered on August 17, 1807 “on behalf of the Emperor to Jean-Jacques-Régis Prince Cambacéres, arch-chancellor of the Empire, on the occasion of the marriage of Princess Stéphanie [de Beauharnais, now of Baden ] ” this table service, distinguished by burgundy marli - the color of imperials - decorated with alternating gold flowers, and a frieze of stylized leaves. The present plate belongs to a small group painted with landscapes of notable sites in the Empire.
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Featured in: Revue des Musées de France
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