Two plates with shallow depressions in the center. Around the rim are three white ground reserves with flowers in them. They are connected by swags of gilt flowers. In the center is a large white reserve with a bouquet of flowers.
Credit
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. The Arabella D. Huntington Memorial Art Collection.
These plates have been identified by David Peters as probably part of a group of service pieces with a pink ground painted with polychrome groups of flowers and flowers with fruit, delivered to the marchand bijoutier Jacques Dumoulin during the first half of 1774 and the second half of 1775. The service consisted of thirty-six plates priced at 33 livres each. Two of the Huntington plates are dated for 1775, one is dated for 1774, and one does not have a date mark. Each of the four plates 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 rim reserves are edged with a tooled gilded pattern of palm fronds and floral vines. A gilded pattern of floral garlands links the reserves. The center of each plate is painted with a floral bouquet; two of the bouquets also incorporate fruit. The floral bouquets were painted by a different artist for each plate: 27.59, dated 1774, painted by Antoine-Joseph Chappius; 27.58, dated 1775, painted by Bertrand (fig. 00); 27.79, dated 1775, painted by Guillaume Noël; and 27.80, undated, painted by Vincent Taillandier. The quality of the floral painting varies significantly, that by Taillandier and Bertrand being markedly more accomplished than that by the other two. The gilding on each plate was done by François Baudouin, and all except the Taillandier plate are also marked for the gilder François Barré. A similar grouping of their marks, B BD, is on the wine bottle cooler of circa 1775 (cat. 107). Pink had been introduced during the second half of the 1750s and was not often produced after the early 1760s. The tone of the pink on these pieces from the 1770s differs significantly from that on the earlier pieces, indicating that a different recipe may have been used. The gilding is thinly applied and there is a yellowing to the pink ground adjacent to the gilding. No carmine enamel has been added to give depth and definition to the gilded pattern as is found on earlier pink ground pieces.
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