Literature

The decoration on compotier ovale with bleu lapis ground with vermiculé gilding indicates that it was a component from one of the two dinner services of this pattern produced in 1762-63. The factory mark and any date letter or decorator's marks did not fire successfully on this piece.

At the end of 1762 a service of this pattern was sold to the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Duc de Praslin, and the ministry's surviving registers of presents given by Louis XV lists it as supplied to the Duc de Nivernois in January 1763 for his use when French Ambassador to the British Court. Nearly half of that service survives in the British Royal Collection, displayed at St. James's Palace, London but without any of the oval dishes in the original delivery list. The present piece is clearly from this service and has probably been in England for 260 years since it was created.

In June 1763 the other service of this pattern was given by Louis XV to the Duchess of Bedford as she and the Duke were leaving Paris after the Treaty of Paris had been signed ending the Seven Years War, he having been the British Ambassador there. That service is still in the collection of the Dukes of Bedford at Woburn Abbey and its original lists show that all of its' oval dishes of this shape are still in their collection.