Bouillard Cup (Gobelet Bouillard)
Amongst the many distinctive teacup shapes at Vincennes and Sèvres is the gobelet Bouillard (Bouillard Cup), exemplified by Slides 9a–b (1753), Slide 31 (1760), and Slide 38 (n.d.). These shapes, which first appeared in 1753, are named after Antoine-Augustin Bouillard, a shareholder in the Vincennes and Sèvres factories starting in 1745. He was both a fermier-général (farmer general) and a marchand-mercier (dealer in furniture, art, and merchandise, often of the decorative arts; sometimes also agent and designer). Bouillard was also the accountant for the porcelain factory; his duties included signing the accounts for the factory director, Jacques-René Boileau de Picardie (director of the Vincennes-Sèvres factories, 1745–72), and acknowledging gifts from the factory to the French Court.
Rosalind Savill confirms that the cups in Slide 9b are Bouillard cups, not Bouret cups, although she notes the difficulty in distinguishing the two shapes from each other (1988, 2:527, 532n11, 592, 596 note “3k”, 596n16). For a drawing of the Bouillard cup’s typical shape, see Savill 1988, 2:527.
References: Savill 1988, 2:527–33, 532n11, 592, 596 note “3k”, 596n16, 3:965, 3:970–71, 3:1176; Roth and Le Corbeiller 2000, 165, 178; Dawson 1994, 105.