Plate [1 of 4]

These four plates were part of a pink-ground service decorated with hunting scenes that included a wine bottle cooler (seau à demi-bouteille) also in the Huntington collection. The plates have been identified as four of the twelve plates described for this service in the Sèvres sales record as "Assiettes rozes attributes de Chasse" for 60 livres each. See cat. 103 for background information on this service.
Each plate is decorated around the rim with an overglaze pink ground color and three shaped oval white reserves painted in polychrome with sprays of flowers. The floral reserves are edged with a tooled gilded pattern of scrolls and flowers. A slightly raised molded pattern around the outer edge of each plate is obscured by the painted and gilded decoration. The center of each plate is painted in polychrome with figures of huntsmen holding rifles in landscapes (fig. 103). Each scene depicts similar figures in a different forest setting: a group of three or four blue-coated figures and dogs with a single figure in a lighter colored coat and a blue sash across his chest. Two further huntsmen are represented in the distance of each scene.
None of the plates has a decorator's mark and it has not been possible to attribute the painting of the landscapes on them firmly to one artist. They are finely painted with a subtle variety of colors to give depth to the scenes and are based on the classic formula of brown tones in the foreground, green tones for the middle ground, and blue or gray tones for the distance. The flower painting is not particularly distinguished and would have been done by one or more different decorators. Where the gilding has not been worn by use, the tooling to give definition to the gilt flowers is finely achieved.