A Vincennes circular dish (plat d'entremets) from the first Louis XV service c.1754-55

A Vincennes circular dish (plat d'entremets) from the first Louis XV service c.1754-55, painted with a loose central spray of flowers, the moulded rim with three panels of further flowers reserved within gilt foliate and scroll borders on a bleu celeste ground, 31.5cm.

Provenance: a private UK collection. Purchased in London during the 1950s and thence by familial descent.

The bleu celeste (heavenly blue) ground was created by the chemist, Jean Hellot, specifically for this service and it was the first time such a colour had been used on porcelain in this way. This service, the first full service that Vincennes had delivered, was first used on 4th February 1754 and remained in use until the end of the Ancien regime. 120 components were delivered to Louis XV at the end of 1753, with a further 133 pieces being delivered a year later. Factory records detail 28 plat d'entrées et d'entremets delivered among the third part of the service, on 31st December 1755, each at a cost of 240 livres, and it is likely that this is one of those. Only three survivals of this shape are recorded; one in the Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, the other was sold in these salerooms on 4th February 2020 as part of the Judith Howard Collection.

Other items from the service remain in the collection at the palace of Versailles, with a large part of the service in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch at Boughton House (this part of the service apparently gifted to the duc de Choiseul and then sold to the Duke of Buccleuch by Beau Brummell).