A Pair of Sèvres Porcelain Plates (Assiette à guirlandes), circa 1759

Probably from the service delivered to Antoine-René de Voyer d'Argenson (1722-1787), marquis de Paulmy in 1760, or to the merchand-mercier Madame Lair the same year;

Furniture and Works of Art from the Anne-Aymone and Valery Giscard D'Estaing collections, Beaussant Lefevre, Paris, 13 December, 2022, lot 83;

Where acquired by the present collector.

This plate almost certainly formed part of one of two services sold by the Sèvres manufactory in 1760: the first, delivered on 29 March to Antoine-René de Voyer d'Argenson, Marquis de Paulmy, Minister of War 1757-58, Ambassador to Poland 1760-64, Ambassador-Extraordinary to Saxony 1760-63, and subsequently (1767-68) Ambassador to Venice; and the second, supplied later that year to the Parisian marchand-mercier Madame Marie Herbin Lair, one of the leading luxury dealers in eighteenth-century Paris. For a full listing of the pieces in both deliveries and further discussion of the services see David Peters, Sèvres Plates and Services of the 18th Century, vol II, 2005, revised edition 2026, pp. 325-328, nos. 60-1 and 60-2. A pair of bottle coolers (seaux à bouteille) in this pattern, circa 1758 also formed part of the collection of Anne-Aymone and Valery Giscard D'Estaing and sold in their sale at Beaussant Lefevre, Paris (lot 84). A plate from from one of these services is in the Art Institute of Chicago, ref. no. 1994.387. A further plate painted in this pattern by Levé in 1778 and probably a supplement to either one of these services, was sold at Sotheby's New York, 22 October, 2005, lot 20 (part).

Madame de Pompadour acquired a set of six plates decorated in this manner in 1758 through the Paris marchand-mercier Lazar Duvaux, who recorded them as “bord à rubans verd.” A plate that may belong to this group is illustrated in a private collection in R. Shaw, A Thing of Beauty is a Joy For Ever, London, 2017, pp. 38-39.