Twelve Sèvres ice cups 1770 and 1775

(tasses à glace) each painted with scattered roses beneath a narrow band of roses and scrolling foliage below a gilt-edged and tassled drapery swag border at the rim, eleven with interlaced L's, two with date letter R for 1770 and two with date letter X for 1775, two with painter's letter E for Claude Couturier, one with a fleur-de-lis for Vincent Taillandier and two with S. for Pierre-Antoine Méraud and L. for Denis Levé in blue or black enamel. One with haircrack to base of handle.

For a discussion of this service, which may have formed part of a purchase by the Parisian marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier, see David Peters, Sèvres Plates and Services of the 18th Century, Vol. II, p. 437-40, where the present ice cups are discussed, pp. 439-40. The pattern was copied at the Derby manufactory in England, circa 1787, which Peters suggests may indicate that the service was in England at an early date, and was perhaps purchased by Frederick, 4th Baron Guilford, known as Lord North.