A Berlin KPM porcelain sauce boat from a service made for the French envoy François Barthélemy
Model no. 631. Decorated with a blue grapevine border on gold ground and a central bouquet. Blue sceptre mark. A restored breakage to the handle. H 8.2, W 24 cm.
Around 1780.
In the Conto Book (Pretiosa 1, period: 1791 - 1798) of royal orders in the historical KPM archives in Potsdam, the following entry is found under the date of 12th September 1795:
"For the French envoy Mr Barthelemy (...) in Basel, to complete a table. Service of Englishglatt design, painted with (...) colourful naturalistic flowers and fruits (...), on the lip a light blue vine tendril in ½ inch wide golden background (...)".
This was an addition to an extensive dinner service which the French envoy had received some time earlier from the Prussian king. François Barthélemy was decisively involved in the negotiations between France and Prussia and in the conclusion of the Peace of Basel.
A larger consignment items from this service were sold at auction by Christie's London in the 1990s. The only known dessert plate is in the Victoria & Albert Museum. Through the donation of Albrecht Schütze, five pieces from the service, two large round plates, two dinner plates and a shell-shaped salt, entered the collection of the Berlin Stadtmuseum. In addition, a trivet bowl with decorated shell handles from a private collection in Westphalia became known to a wider audience through a special exhibition and the catalogue published for it. All these porcelain items undoubtedly belong to the dinner service for the French envoy François Barthélemy, which he received from the Prussian King Frederick William II in recognition of his part in the conclusion of the peace treaty known as the Peace of Basel.
We would like to thank Mr Dag Nabrdalik for this information.
Literature
Cf. cat. Berliner Porzellan. Glanz und Eleganz von Tischen und Tafeln 1763 - 1850, Münster 2006, cat. no. 97.
Cf. Lempertz Berlin auction 1169 on 24th April 2021, lot 174.