A small number of pieces with an opaque white tin glaze were made  at Vincennes in the experimental period of the late 1740s, most famously the jug with a scene of a military encampment in the Musée National de la Céramique, Sèvres.[i]

The form of our cup is not recorded at Vincennes, but the shape of the body and the handle are found at Meissen.[ii] Similar Meissen handles were copied at Vincennes.[iii]

The same hand that painted our cup is found on other pieces from the late 1740s at Vincennes. The painter often portrayed a lady with a striped underskirt and displayed classical sculptures on plinths in romanticised landscapes with slender cypress trees in the background.

The broad band of gilding around the cartouche is also a common feature of early Vincennes from around 1748.

The mark is surprising and unrecorded. Crossed swords in blue enamel are found on early Vincennes pieces that copy Meissen examples; the scimitar or, perhaps, a hunting knife is not known. Painting in blue on an opaque tin glaze has softened the outline and colour. The thick foot can also be found on early Vincennes.

The only other factories that used a tin glaze in France were Chantilly and Villeroy but neither painted in this style nor used such forms. Since we can discount these two other factories, Vincennes seems to most plausible attribution.

Condition:
Firing crack in base extending to a crack up the side with associated chip filled.

Provenance:
Collection of Hugo Morley Fletcher, Head of the Ceramics Department at Christies in the 1970s and 1980s.

References:

d’Albis & Klein 1997
Antoine d’Albis et Mireille Klein, Un pot à scène militaire de la manufacture de Vincennes,  Revue de la Société des Amis du Musée National de Céramique, no. 6, 1997

Gwilt 2014
Joanna Gwilt, Vincennes and Early Sèvres Porcelain from the Belvedere Collection, 2014

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[i] For a full discussion of the jug see d’Albis & Klein 1997 pp. 28 – 35. A tin-glazed seau a verre,
circa 1747-48, was sold at Daguerre, Hôtel Drouot, 31 January 2025, lot 140.

[ii] See, for instance, handled cups from the tea and chocolate set given to the Queen of France Marie Leszczynska by the Polish King August III in March 1737. https://collections.chateauversailles.fr/#/query/cfa3ba98-4b44-4197-9032-72c05a3e273a

[iii] See the handles on the ecuelles of circa 1746/47 in the Belvedere Collection. Gwilt 2014, nos. 10 & 11.

Price: £6,500