Manufacture de Sèvres NO LIVE AUCTION FOR THIS... Lot 28

Manufacture de Sèvres
NO LIVE AUCTION FOR THIS LOT - PLEASE CONTACT THE FIRM TO PLACE YOUR BIDS

ICE BUCKET FROM THE EMPEROR'S PRIVATE SERVICE
Exceptional Sèvres hard-paste porcelain ice bucket from the Emperor's service, known as the Quartiers Généraux service, also known as the "glacière à chimères" or Denon ice bucket, bell-shaped, standing on four winged lion feet on a square base with gold background, decorated in gold with ochre highlights on a green chrome background of antique heads and fruit puddles held in place by knotted ribbons, foliate scrolls and rosettes on the neck, the lower part decorated with a frieze of scrolling foliage and fleurons, the interior with a gold background, the vermeil handle attached to two rosettes framing draped female heads with a gold background.
Debossed marks: d.p. and gn
Mark in green: 36 m.
Vignette mark in red: M. Imple de Sèvres 10.
Empire period, 1810.
Total H. with handle: 42 cm
H. of porcelain: 36.5 cm.
D. 24.7 cm

Condition report:
Restoration to base: all four feet broken just above the lion's paw and restored, the square
the square base is undamaged, but has been extensively covered with gilding
the feet, the original gilding under this restoration is in good condition.
Minimal gold wear on the fluted frieze on the neck.
Three rivets missing from the handle attachments.

THE EMPEROR'S PRIVATE SERVICE

In October 1807, Emperor Napoleon 1st ordered a new service from the Sèvres factory to replace the Olympic service he had just given to Tsar Alexander 1st.
This service, named Service Particulier de l'Empereur, was later designated Service des Quartiers Généraux (Service of the General Quarters); this name, already used by the loyal valet de chambre Marchand on his departure for St. Helena, could refer to the general quarters Napoleon occupied during his campaigns, several of which are depicted on the plates.
The service was delivered to the Tuileries Palace on March 27, 1810, just in time to appear on the banquet table for the wedding to Marie-Louise on April 2, 1810.
The service consisted of an entrée service and a dessert service, accompanied by a large cookie surtout composed of twenty-five sculptures and a twenty-nine-piece Egyptian cabaret, all for the considerable sum of 69,549 francs. A painting by Alexandre Dufay, known as Casanova, now in the Château de Fontainebleau, illustrates the wedding banquet, where several elements of the cookie service are depicted around the Emperor's Grand Vermeil service.

For the painted plates, Napoleon's instructions, passed on by Daru to Alexandre Brongniart, director of the Sèvres factory, were as follows: that there should be no battles or men's names in these designs, but that the subjects should offer only very indirect allusions that evoke pleasant memories. The Emperor himself supplied 28 subjects: 4 for the two Italian campaigns, 15 for the Egyptian expedition, 3 for the Austrian campaign, and the remaining 6 for the Prussian and Polish campaigns. Alexandre Brongniart, assisted by Vivant Denon, completed the subjects with other key events from the same campaigns, as well as views of Paris, the imperial residences, the major institutions of the Empire and major works carried out in the provinces. Each plate cost 425 francs, an unprecedented sum at the time. For the design of the wing, a border of antique swords was used, conceived in April 1807 by the architect Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart, father of the director of the manufactory. It was finally decided to adopt the chrome green tone, recently developed by the chemist Vauquelin. The painters began their work in January 1808 and completed it in March 1810. A drawing of the ice bucket, dated 1809, is kept in the archives of the Manufacture de Sèvres. The shape was inspired by an antique sacrificial vase kept in the Royal Museum of Portici, near Naples, and published in the 18th century by Pierre-François Hugues d'Hancarville, Antiquités étrusques, grecques et romaines, tirées du cabinet de M. Hamilton envoyé extraordinaire de S.M. britannique en cour de Naples, 1766-1767, Tome 2. The abbé de Saint-Non also illustrates this form in his Voyage pittoresque ou Description des royaumes de Naples et de Sicile, published in 1783.

The service included 72 painted dessert plates, 24 soup plates and 24 dessert plates called "assiettes à monter à bordure seulement".
The first delivery in March 1810 also included two iceboxes described as "2 Vases à glace For d (probablement pour forme Denon), avec décor ombré en brun et or relief anses riches en vermeil" at a price of 1,300 francs each. A small addition to the service is