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Sèvres, 1788
Porcelain, soft paste
ø 24 cm
Inv. no. 2336 (28)
This is one of the 60 plates that made up a “service” decorated with birds “of the Indies” based on drawings by the naturalist Buffon. Each one depicts four different birds that are identified on the back. The centre of this plate shows a “sovacou de Cayenne”, a variety of boatbill, inside a circular frame, while the rim has two different South American manakins and a “pie grièche” (a dwarf magpie) from Madagascar inside oval cartouches set on a dark blue ground filled with a frieze of repeated painted and gilt motifs in Louis XVI style.
The Sèvres painters’ concern to identify the different species reflects both the demand for scientific accuracy and the curiosity aroused among the public by these “novelties”.
The exceptional nature of these “services”, which were never used on a daily basis, is evident. We can see the identification of the Sèvres artists on the back: the painter Pierre jeune and the gilder Henri-François Vincent jeune, as well as the factory’s mark and the date of production.
A selection of 18th century-pieces in the Calouste Gulbenkian Collection
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