Cup and Saucer (tasse à thé et soucoupe)

This cup and saucer were produced after the Sèvres porcelain manufactory transferred from royal to state ownership during the French Revolution. In this period, there was a dramatic drop in sales of luxury goods, especially porcelain. To stay relevant, the factory integrated patriotic, revolutionary symbolism into the decoration of some of its porcelain wares. On this set’s saucer, where the cup would rest, the painter rendered a Phrygian cap (a symbol of liberty) with a tricolor cockade (a ribbon worn to signal one’s support of the Revolution) affixed to its side, resting upon a triangular stonemason’s level (a symbol of equality and justice). Branches of oak leaves, a reference to the Tree of Liberty (a symbol of the Eternal Republic), flank the Phrygian cap. A large tricolor cockade frames the vignette of symbolic Republican imagery. Charles-Nicolas Buteux, the decorator who rendered this painted decoration, worked at Sèvres from 1763 until 1801, thus witnessing the heights of production under royal ownership before 1792, the Revolutionary period when he painted this set, and the beginnings of the Napoleonic Empire.

The wide and low shape of the cup in this set is one not commonly seen in Sèvres production, but it has been documented in the factory’s archives as the “tasse à thé” (tea cup). Several examples are known including six that are part of a tea and coffee set dated 1789 in the British Royal Collection (inventory numbers 35556.1-6). Additional singular examples are held in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, one dating to 1765 (accession no. C.252-1987) and two dating to the first French Republic period of 1793–1800, both of which are decorated with Republican symbols), like the Walters cup and saucer (accession nos. 769-1877 and 770-1877.

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Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.

Acquired by William T. or Henry Walters, Baltimore, before 1931; by bequest to the Walters Art Museum.