A pair of Sèvres plates from the service made for Prince Napoleon circa 1856

the well painted with an urn and basin, the other with dice and writing set and vase in pietra dura imitation on a scroll-edged slab of marble, enclosed by a band of alternating black and gilt lines within a trelliswork border, the rim with a border of gold and white flowers and berried foliage, all against a matt iron-red ground

The plates are part of a larger service commissioned on 7th March 1856 by Prince Napoleon-Joseph-Charles-Paul Bonaparte (1822-91). Comprising 298 pieces, the service was delivered on 18th October of the same year. The dessert service, of which these plates formed a part, is mentioned in the factory Archives as a 'fd. rouge décor étrusque' and consisted of seventy-two asiettes plates at a cost of 76 francs each. Prince Napoleon probably commissioned the service originally for his mistress, the actress Mademoiselle Rachel Felix (1828-58). For further reading and another example of a plate from this service see A. Dawson, French Porcelain, a catalogue of the British Museum collection, p.230ff., cat.no.189.

The decoration of one of the plates was directly copied after Antichità d'Ercolaneo, Naples, 1760, Vol II, Tavola XVIII, P.118 and 157.