A Sèvres green-ground tray, 'plateau Courteille' or 'plateau de chiffonière', circa 1761

Christie's, New York, 30 October 1993, lot 97.

This shape of 'plateau Courteille' is distinguished by indented corners and was designed specifically to provide the lower gallery of a table en chiffonière. The 'plateau Courteille' was introduced in 1758 and was made in four versions, some with handles, and commonly incorporated in déjeuner sets. The top of the table would have been formed of another version of the same model, with lobed corners. The titles 'plateau de chiffonière' and 'plateau Courteille' were synonymous in the Sèvres records as indicated by the fact that in 1761, Poirier bought a tray referred to as ‘plateau Courteille ou de Chiffonière’.1 It was the first shape to be regularly mounted in furniture and anticipates the introduction of furniture plaques. While the first 'déjeuner Courteille' appears in the Sales Registers in December 1758, no single 'plateau Courteille' is listed until July 1760. Following Poirier’s 1761 purchase, the reference to which combines both titles, trays intended for mounting in a table were referred to either as 'plateau de chiffonière' or simply 'chiffonière' in the factory records.

The marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier (c. 1720-85) probably had the idea of mounting these trays in tables, and indeed the Sales Registers indicate that from July 1760 to June 1770 he bought all but four examples. The tables incorporating Sèvres trays were made chiefly by Bernard van Risen Burgh II, Bernard III van Risamburgh, or Roger Vandercruse and are either of marquetry or painted in brightly-coloured opaque varnishes (vernis Martin). A pair of chiffonière tables from the Hillingdon Collection, attributed to Bernard II van Risenburgh, are in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (object nos. 58.75.45 and 58.75.46, Gift of Samuel H. Kress Foundation, 1958). Both incorporate green-ground Sèvres porcelain 'plateaux Courteille' tabletops, the latter with a top painted with birds, attributed to Armand, and the lower tray a Minton replacement. For a full discussion of 'plateaux Courteille' in tables see R. Savill, The Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, London, 1988, Vol. II, p. 805-813, and p. 807, C489, for a 1760 blue and green ground tray of the same form as the present lot (designated Shape D by Savill) and also painted with birds by Louis-Denis Armand l'aîné.

The characterful bird painting on this tray is by Louis-Denis Armand l'aîné who was one of the factory's most talented and imaginative bird painters and active at Vincennes and then Sèvres from 1746 to 1788. His bird painting is distinguished by fine detail, a vibrant palette and the animated character with which he often imbued his subjects. He is known to have drawn birds from life including from the gardens at the château de Versailles and was adept at adapting his compositions to perfectly fit with the shape of the object and the design of the decoration. He was one of the highest paid artists working at the factory and his hand is evident on many important commissions painted with birds, and on components of the most lavish dinner services. In the first ten years or so at the factory, his birds are often imaginary and exotic and then from the mid-1760s, more precisely ornithological, drawing upon engravings published by contemporary naturalists such as George Edwards. Later, around the time of his move to the hard-paste workshop in 1773, he returned to painting more fantastical birds and animals.2

^1. Sèvres, Cité de la céramique, Archives, Sales Registers, October 1761, f.71v.

^2. For further details on Armand’s career at Sèvres, see the essay by Bernard Dragesco, ‘Armand l'Aîné. A Painter of Nature in John Whitehead, Sèvres at the Time of Louis XV: Birth of the Legend, Paris, 2010, pp. 90-91.