Made c.1780-90 and decorated in the Hague, it was later presented by the Prince William of Orange Nassau (1840-79) to his doctor Gabriel Merigot de Treigny during his exile in Paris. It had remained in the family ever since.
The decoration to the body of the bowl, which showed a group of 11 men seated around a table drinking and smoking pipes was based on the William Hogarth print A Midnight Modern Conversation.
The Amsterdam museum paid a hammer price of €11,000 (£10,000) to secure the piece, which was offered together with a 19th century Meissen floral decorated platter.
Marie-Antoinette’s service
The punchbowl was one of 337 lots in a dedicated ceramics sale held by Peschetau Badin (27% buyer’s premium) at the Paris auction centre on June 18 in which 80% of the lots found buyers.
Sèvres plate from the Service à Perles et Barbeaux of Marie-Antoinette – €30,000 (£27,270) Peschetau Badin .
Porcelain and faience from French factories dominated. However, topping the sale list at a five-times-estimate €35,000 (£31,820) was a large 18 x 24in (45 x 60cm) five-part Meissen figural group representing a Triumph of Flora featuring the goddess at the apex with couples, shepherds, children and animals below. It dated to the late 19th century.
The most expensive item of French porcelain, at €30,000 (£27,270), was a Sèvres soft paste porcelain plate from the so-called Service à Perles et Barbeaux made for Marie-Antoinette.
This service, which ran to 295 pieces, was commissioned in 1781 and takes its name from the simple decoration of barbeaux or bluets (cornflowers) featured to the centre and around the rim, set between two raised bands of ‘pearls’.
The 9in (23cm) diameter plate carried the factory’s interlaced LL marks, a date letter for 1781 and painter’s mark for Laroche.
English porcelain does not appear that frequently at the rostrum in France but this auction was notable for the inclusion of a small porcelain scent bottle ascribed to the Girl-in-a-Swing factory, Charles Gouyn’s short-lived St James’s concern that made figures and small porcelain ‘toys’ or trinkets from c.1749-55.
St James’s factory porcelain scent bottle – €5000 (£4545) at Peschetau Badin.
This example was fashioned as a figure of a Polish hussar with the head forming the stopper.
A similar example was sold by Sotheby’s New York in 2013 for $11,000. The Peschetau Badin version, which had been estimated at a €1500-2000, came in at €5000 (£4545).
£1 = €1.10
