Plate from the Catherine the Great Service (assiette)
Dublin Core
Title
Plate from the Catherine the Great Service (assiette)
Subject
LCSH: Porcelain, French—18th century—Pictorial works | Porcelain, French—Private collections | Porcelain, French—Sèvres—18th century—Slide collections | Sèvres porcelain—18th century—Pictorial works | Slides (Photography)—Private collections | Fritzsche, Ulrich—Art collections—Pictorial works | Ceramic tableware—France—18th century | Plates (Tableware)—France—18th century | Gilding—France—18th century | Decoration and ornament—Plant forms—France—18th century | Flowers in art | Plants in art | Crowns in art | Tandart, Jean-Baptiste —Pictorial works | Chauvaux, Michel-Barnabé —Pictorial works
Getty AAT keywords: porcelain (material) | porcelain (visual works) | dinnerware | decorative plates | plates (general, dishes) | porcelain painting (image-making) | gilding-technique | flower (motif) | floral patterns | plant-derived motifs | crowns (headdresses)
Description
35mm color slide of a plate from the Catherine the Great Service (Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory). It has a turquoise blue ground color (known as bleu céleste), a frieze of gilt scrolls (rinceaux), and small oval reserves depicting scenes from classical antiquity en grisaille, in imitation of bas-reliefs. This is part of a celebrated dinner- and dessert-service commissioned in 1776 by Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia. At the center of the plate is Catherine’s monogram (E II) (Savill 1988, 2:762–82; Dawson 1994, 141–44; Roth and Le Corbeiller 2000, 281–83). The plate has a mark for Jean-Baptiste Tandart aîné (the elder; 1729–1816, active 1754–1800 or 1803), who was one of the “most skilled flower-painters” of his era (Eriksen and De Bellaigue 1987, 96; dates from Savill 1988, 3:1070; Tardy 1981, 566), as well as a gilder’s mark for Michel-Barnabé Chauvaux aîné (the elder; also known as Chauveaux, active ca. 1753–88), a “gilder and painter of ornaments” (Tardy 1981, 533; Savill 1988, 3:1020–21). The number 56 is handwritten on the slide.
See the Fritzsche Porcelain Exhibit for more details on the Catherine the Great Service, the color bleu céleste (celestial blue), Tandart, Chauvaux, and porcelain marks.
Creator
Fritzsche, Ulrich (creator of slide); D’Arms, Ted (photographer); Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory (creator of object)
Publisher
Seattle Art Museum Libraries
Date
1782 (date of object)
June 1982 (date of slide)
Contributor
Painter, Kirsten Blythe
Rights
These materials may be protected under copyright law and may only be used for educational, teaching, and learning purposes. If intended use is beyond these purposes, it is the sole responsibility of the user to obtain the appropriate copyright permissions.
Format
application/jpg
Language
English | French
Type
still image
References
Spatial Coverage
France
Temporal Coverage
eighteenth century (dates CE)
Still Image Item Type Metadata
Original Format
slide, scanned using an Epson Perfection V600 Photo scanner at 3200 dpi.
Collection
Citation
Fritzsche, Ulrich (creator of slide); D’Arms, Ted (photographer); Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory (creator of object), “Plate from the Catherine the Great Service (assiette),” Seattle Art Museum Libraries: Digital Collections, accessed April 20, 2025, https://samlibraries.omeka.net/items/show/2983.