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Covered beaker and saucer

Made at: Sèvres Manufactory (France)
Decorated by: Guillaume Noel (French, active at Sèvres 1755–1800)
République Francaise
About 1795

Medium/Technique Soft-paste porcelain decorated in polychrome enamels, gold and platinum
Dimensions Overall (cup with cover): 13 x 8.4 cm (5 1/8 x 3 5/16 in.)
Overall (saucer): 3.4 x 17.5 cm (1 5/16 x 6 7/8 in.)
Credit Line Bequest of Forsyth Wickes—The Forsyth Wickes Collection
Accession Number65.1889a-c
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsCeramicsPorcelain

DescriptionThe tall circular cup tapers near the base and rests on a high stepped foot. The slightly domed cover is surmounted by a simple knop finial. The saucer has gently sloping sides and a circular well to fit the foot of the cup. The lilac ground is punctuated by oval reserves containing musical and military trophies painted in green with gilt highlights on a white ground. The reserves are framed by pearl stringing on a rust-red borders within gilt lines. Similar borders are painted at the rims of the cup and the saucer, above the foot of the cup, and near the well fo the saucer. Both the cup and the saucer bear registers of a stylized egg-and-dart molding enclosing anthemion leaves painted in purple and gold, and the foot of the cup and the well of the saucer are painted with linked purple and gold ovals on a pale blue ground and a band of Vitruvian scrolls on a pale red ground.
Marks Cup: the letters RF in script intertwined, flanked by the letter A. and the number 3., painter's mark of Guillaume Noel, above Sevres in script below, all in blue enamel; incised 41. Saucer: painter marks as above; incised 40.
ProvenanceForsyth Wickes (b.1876-d.1964), New York and Newport, RI; 1965, bequest of Forsyth Wickes to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 24, 1965)