Two Paris (Darte) Porcelain Roman Emperor Cameo Plates, Tiberius and Caligula, Circa 1820

The present lot and the following (lots 111-116), present a near complete group of Paris porcelain plates depicting the first Roman Emperors of the 1st Century CE, ‘The Twelve Caesars’, beginning with the Roman General Julius Caesar (100 BCE-44 BCE), then:

Augustus (31 BCE–14 CE);

Tiberius (14–37 CE);

Caligula (37–41 CE);

Nero (54–68 CE);

Galba (68–69 CE);

Otho (January–April 69 CE);

Aulus Vitellius (July–December 69 CE);

Vespasian (69–79 CE);

Titus (79–81 CE) and

Domitian (81–96 CE).

This suite of plates is a testament to the painters skill to successfully replicate in enamels the effect of cameo hard-stone, who using monochrome engravings as sources, had to imagine and re-create the colors of precious stones.

They are contemporary to the superb Sèvres 'Service Iconographique Grec', 1811-1818, painted with titled ‘cameo’ portraits with bleu lapisse en or ground rims. It was produced as two identical dessert services: the first completed was completed in 1811 and presented on July 13^th of that year to Cardinal Fesch on the occasion of the baptism of the King of Rome (Napoléon II. son of Napoléon I and Marie-Louise). Referred to as the 'Service à Camées', its 82 component pieces are discussed by Pierre Verlet, Les Grands Services de Sèvres, the catalogue of a 1951 exhibition at the Musée National de Céramique, Sèvres, p. 48, no. 23. The second service was produced between 1812 and 1817, and was named after its principal source of decoration: the Iconographique ancienne ou recueil des portraits authentique des empereurs, rois et hommes illustres de l'Antiquité by Ennio Quirino Visconti (1751-1818). Twenty two plates and a sucrier from the Sèvres service are illustrated and discussed by Samuel Wittwer, Refinement & Elegance, Early Nineteenth-Century Royal Porcelain from the Twinight Collectio, New York, Munich, 2007, pp. 158-161.

It is possible the present suite of plates take their inspiration from the work Iconographie Romaine, th published in four volumes between 1817-26, the final three of which were completed by Chevalier A. Mongez after Visconti’s death.

Two Darte ‘cameo’ painted plates of this type titled ‘CALIGULA’ and 'VESPASIEN' respectively, are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, presented by Lt. Col. K. Dingwall, acc. nos. C.374-1914 and C.375-1914. Four plates from the Sèvres 'Service Iconographique Grec' were sold at Sotheby’s New York, May 20, 2010, lots 2-5. A further six plates from the service were sold at Sotheby’s New York, November 18, 2010, lots 2-6.

There were three Darte brothers, Joseph (1765-1832), Louis Joseph (1766-1843) and Jean François (1768-1834). In 1795 they pursued a venture in porcelain and bought a factory in Paris, located at 3 rue de Charonne. The three brothers opened a shop at the Palais Royal, under the direction of Jean François. By 1803 two of the brothers Louis Joseph and Jean François formed a new company, keeping the name Darte Frères while Joseph Darte continued under 'Darte Ainé'.