A Sèvres preserve stand (plateau à deux pots de confiture), date code for 1788, painted with

A Sèvres preserve stand (plateau à deux pots de confiture), date code for 1788, painted with scattered convolvulus flowers and continuous garlands of convolvulus within narrow yellow bands with further floral tendrils, the U-shaped bowls fixed to the base and each with a flat cover with simple gilded knop, blue interlaced Ls mark enclosing date letters LL, 24cm. (3)

Provenance: from an English private collection, Sussex.

This service was supplied to William Eden, British Envoy-Extraordinary and Minister-Plenipotentiary to France, who was in Paris in 1787 following negotiation of the Anglo-French Treaty of Navigation and Commerce. Correspondence indicates that the service may have been a gift for George Rose, Secretary to the Treasury in the British Government. Cf. David Peters, Sèvres Plates and Services of the 18th Century, Vol. IV, pp.821-823 for a discussion of the service.