35mm color slide of a litron cup (Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory). The ground color is a dark blue known as the king's blue (
bleu du roi), overlaid with tooled gilding of garlands, scrolls, foliage, and urns. The central reserve depicts two nude women, pointing to doves in the foreground, and framed by trees in the background. Fritzsche (2018) notes that the scene in the reserve was painted by Charles-Nicolas Dodin (1734–1803; active 1754–1802), and based on a work by François Lemoyne (1688–1737). Dodin was a painter whose “meticulous technique” was “unrivalled” at the porcelain factory (Savill 1988, 3:1029–30). The cup is an example of a
gobelet litron (litron cup), which has a distinctive, straight-sided, cylindrical shape, and was the most common form of teacup produced at the Sèvres factory. For a side-view of this cup, see
Slide 58c. For the matching saucer, see
Slide 58a. The number 58 is handwritten on the slide.
See the
Fritzsche Porcelain Exhibit for more details on the litron cup, Dodin, and diverse blue ground colors such as the king's blue (
bleu du roi).