A Set of Twelve Mintons Pâte-sur-pâte Ivory and Grey Plates, Dated 1916

Mrs Mae Caldwell Rovensky (née Plant) (1880-1956), New York;

The Art Collection of The Late Mrs. John. E. Rovensky [Formerly Mrs Morton F. Plant] Part I Removed from 1051 Fifth Avenue, New York, Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, January 15, 1957, lots 46 or 47.

The collection of Mrs Mae Caldwell Rovensky (1881-1956) included paintings; Beauvais and Soho tapestries; Chelsea and Meissen porcelain, among which was a Chelsea rabbit tureen; George I silver-gilt, hardstone and gold boxes and Chinese porcelains and jades. The collection of paintings included, among others, Boucher, Watteau, Romney, Gainsborough, Raeburn, Rembrandt, Lawrence and Andrea Del Sarto. In 1957, Parke-Bernet Galleries held several auction for her collection of books, fine furniture, paintings and other art objects, which totalled $2,387,960.

It is highly unusual to find a recipient's monogram on pâte-sur-pâte, which points to the extravagance of the client, and the service, which originally included at least 24 plates, 24 chocolate cups and saucers, and 24 bouillons and stands. The service was offered as six lots of twelve of each shape in the 1957 sale, which included six further Minton services, all monogrammed, with dates for either 1916 or 1917, three of which had pâte-sur-pâte decoration. A set from one of these services (lot 40 in 1957) twelve pink-ground pâte-sur-pâte plates, monogrammed and dated 1916, was later offered at Christie's New York, October 10, 2001, lot 187. The other set of twelve plates and eleven of the bouillon cups from the present service, later entered the collection of Russell B. Aitken (1910-2002), and sold Champ Soleil: Furniture and Decorative Arts from Russell B. Aitken Collections, The Christie's New York, November 25, 2003, lot 361.

Mrs. Mae Cadwell Rovensky married four times: first to Selden M. Manwaring (divorced 1914); in 1914 to Morton F. Plant who died in 1918 (they had one son, Phil Plant who died in 1941); then to Col. William Hayward who died 1944; and then to the industrialist and banker John E. Rovensky (1880-1970). She owned one of the most famous pearl necklaces ever assembled, a strand of 55 and another of 73 matched and graduated pearls, which in 1916 Mrs. Rovensky (then Mrs. Plant) received from her husband. The necklace was taken as payment of $1,000,000 for their mansion at 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue, which became the headquarters of Cartier.

A plate with similar shaped pâte-sur-pâte panels by Birks is illustrated in Joan Jones, Minton, The First Two Hundred Years of Design & Production, Shrewsbury 1993, p. 212.