CIRCA 1776, PINK INTERLACED L MARKS ENCLOSING DATE LETTER Y, PAINTER'S MARK FOR FRANÇOIS-MARIE BARRAT, INDISTINCT INCISED LC

Joseph II, Emperor of Austria and brother of Marie-Antoinette, travelled to France, arriving on 19 April 1777 to visit his sister Marie-Antoinette and brother-in-law, Louis XVI. He travelled under the pseudonym comte de Falkenstein, which allowed him greater freedom of movement while in Paris. While at court he was accommodated at the château de Versailles, close to Marie-Antoinette's own cabinets.

Included in the Sales Registers amongst 'Presents faits par sa Majeste à L'Empereur Et Livré à Monseigneur de Vergenes le 30 Avril 1777' and listed in two groups, the service was ordered by Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, the Minister of Foreign Affairs (1774-87) and was presented by Florimond Claude, Count Mercy d’Argenteau (1727-94), French ambassador to Vienna, as intermediaries in the gift from Louis XVI to the Emperor. This large service cost 43,560 livres and included 120 assiettes, costing 36 livres each, see David Peters, Sèvres Plates and Services of the Eighteenth Century, Little Berkhamsted, 2015, Vol. III, pp. 577-580. Peters discusses the Artists' Ledgers for 1777 which describe different components of the service, including assiettes, with decoration 'fond verd- fleurs et fruits' and 'fond verd- groupes fleurs et fruits' and Barrat's name appears on these lists.

A large part of the service (dated 1775-77) is in the Hofburg Palace, Vienna and a 1777 assiette à palmes, also by Barrat, is in the Musée du Louvre (TH1162). See also the group of wares from this service from the Rothschild Collection, sold Christie's, New York, 13 October 2023, lots 406 and 405.

François-Marie Barrat (oncle) was a painter of flowers and patterns at Sèvres from 1769 to 91 and from 1795 to 96.