Sèvres two-handled cup and saucer

Code: MB626

Coupe à bouillon hémispherique et soucoupe

Circa 1810

Hard-paste porcelain

Height of cup: 4 1/8 in. (10.5 cm.)

Diameter of stand: 9 1/8 in. (23.3 cm.)

Marks: impressed DL on dish, stand with incised DC

The form of this cup and stand first appears in a drawing in the Sèvres archives from 1803, bearing the inscription, “coupe à bouillon et sa soucoupe à deux anses a moulures” [bouillon cup and saucer with two molded handles]. Its more precise name of coupe à bouillon hémispherique was adopted later to distinguish it from other models. A watercolor for another cup and stand of this form is illustrated in Tamara Préaud, The Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory: Alexandre Brongniart and the Triumph of Art and Industry, 1800-1847,1997, p. 175, no. 10. The design for this piece is presumably based on motifs by Charles Percier and Pierre François Leonard Fontaine.