Two different shapes of oval sugar-bowl with a separate stand were created by the Vincennes factory in the early 1750s: the 'sucrier ovale uni' with straight sides and the 'sucrier ovale à compartiments' with a faceted body. Both were produced in two sizes. The cover of the sucrier ovale uni is generally domed and the truncated cone shape of the covers of the present sugar-bowls is unusual. This and the gilded decoration common to both sugar-bowls suggests that they were created as a pair and have remained together since the mid 18th century.
The Vincennes factory sales records do not systematically specify whether the oval sugar-bowls sold were plain (uni) or with compartments (à compartiments). The price for both shapes was the same: a sucrier ovale uni or à compartiments with gold decoration on a bleu lapis ground cost 144 livres for the first size and 120 livres for the second size.
The number of oval sugar-bowls sold in pairs at 144 livres decorated in gold on a bleu lapis ground between 1752 and 1754 is very small. The factory sales register records that Madame de Pompadour bought two on December 28, 1752 (Sèvres Archives; Vy1, f° 5v) and two more separately, two months apart, on March 2, 1753 and May 12, 1753 ( Sèvres Archives; Vy1 6v and 7r). On December 22, 1753, Emmanuel-Félicité de Durfort, Duc de Duras bought two oval sugar-bowls with compartments decorated with flowers; the next line in the sales register mentions 'deux sucriers id. [idem] lapis et or', using the word idem to avoid repeating the designation 'ovale' or 'ovale à compartiments' (Sèvres Archives, Vy1, f° 23 v).
On June 30, 1754, the merchant Machard bought two 'sucriers ovales à compartiments, 1er grandeur oiseaux colorés', then two 'sucriers id. [idem] lapis et or' at 144 livres, the word idem also suggesting that these were once again two sugar-bowls with compartments (Sèvres Archives; Vy1, Vy1 f° 43r). On June 30, 1754, the merchant Lazare Duvaux received two 'sucriers ovales à compartiments' of the first size with lapis and gold decoration for 144 livres (Sèvres Archives; Vy1, f° 48 v). He received two other 'sucriers lapis et or et plateaux' in December 1754 (Sèvres Archives; Vy1, f° 58 v) for the same price, which also appear to be sucriers à compartiments. He sold a pair to Madame de Pompadour in November 1754, noted in his livre -journal under reference 1956: 'Deux sucriers lapis & or (Bellevue) 288 livres' (Louis Courajod, Livre-Journal de Lazare Duvaux, marchand bijoutier ordinaire du Roy, 1748-58, 1873, no. 1956).
Thus, all the pairs of 'sucriers ovales lapis et or' sold between 1752 and 1754 appear to be 'sucriers ovales à compartiments', apart from the pair purchased by Madame de Pompadour in December 1752, possibly those in the present lot.
Another example of the same form with bleu lapis ground and gilt bird decoration in the British Museum, London (museum no. 1923,0314.162.CR), is illustrated by Rosalind Savill, Everyday Rococo: Madame de Pompadour & Sèvres Porcelain, Norwich, 2021, Vol. I, p. 292, fig. 10.20, and by Aileen Dawson, French Porcelain, A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection, London, 1994, no.70, pp. 73-75. Another one, without its stand, with different gilded ornament to the example in the British Museum, was sold in Saint Germain en Laye, Me Loiseau & Schmidt, 21 February 1988, lot 108.
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