Literature

Gobelet à lait chopiine et soucoupe, first size, with the factory mark enclosing the date-letter E for 1758, painter’s mark ce conjoined probably for Mathieu Fouré (active 1754-62), two dots on the edge of the footrim.

The decoration of this cup and saucer is very rare and Rosalind Savill has identified that it was known as ‘falbala’ (flounce or petticoat frills). The Sèvres sales records only referred to the ‘falbala’ ground in lapis for three milk cups and saucers between December 1758 and March 1759.

Two-handled covered warm milk cups were produced in two sizes first recorded in 1752 and stayed in production until the 1780s.

This example is of the first size and such an example was sold for 300 livres, for cash so to an un-recorded name, in March 1759. Apart from our example, there is another which could match this piece in the collections of the Dukes of Mecklenberg 15 cm high in the Staatliche Schlösser, Schwerin [inventory number KG 2985-86] which has even more elaborate gilding.

Between 1st December 1758 and 1st January 1759 the Parisian dealer Madame Duvaux purchased one 'Gobelet à Lait et Soucoupe Lapis' with 'lapis falbala' decoration for 240 livres. The size was not specified but it was more expensive than others with dark blue ground and painted scenes.

The sale of an example of this shape in the smaller second size with this decoration was recorded to the Parisian dealer Simon-Philippe Poirier in December 1758 for 216 livres.