Porcelain, covering, painting, gilding. Stamps of the Sèvres Royal Manufacture from the Period II of the Republic indicating the year "RFS 50." A red printed mark on each item.
The service consists of 13 pieces:
8 dessert plates (diameter 24 cm),
2 biscuit jars (diameter 22 cm, height 40 cm),
2 fruit bowls (diameter 24 cm, height 20 cm),
1 fruit vase (length 25 cm, height 28 cm).
Condition: good.
In the decoration of the plates (in the covering – in the background color), the color "rose Pompadour" is used, created with the participation of Madame de Pompadour, the friend and favorite of Louis XV – essentially the first female prime minister in Europe, who played a significant role in the development of French porcelain art.
The pink background paint is among the first famous Sèvres colors. Moreover, Pompadour pink is just one of its shades. Just like green or sky blue, pink varies from light pink to orange-pink depending on the firing conditions. However, its usage began later than cobalt, beau blue, green, and even yellow – the first items with pink backgrounds date back to 1757. The fact is that pink is even more complex to work with than yellow. Additionally, there is a very high percentage of defects at the output. We rarely think about this, but at Sèvres, focused on masterpieces, there were an extremely large number of defective items. When they made a service with cameos for Catherine, the number of rejected items at the final stage was almost three times greater than those that were successfully completed. And after all, each Sèvres piece is an extremely expensive item.
Thus, products with a pink background are exceedingly rare.