This colorful pair of birds by Duvivier appears on two twelve-lobed faience plates made at Sceaux. One is perched on cut fruit, while the other hovers on a low twig just over the ground, eyeing delectable fruits spread out below. (The whole plates are shown below in 1a and 2a). Their claws are delicately rendered in black, painted almost like inverted commas. We find a good many examples of Fidelle’s birds on the popular Sceaux dessert plates with the blue “notched” edges, and these creatures are often standing on elevated rocky plateaux.(i) But on another such plate appearing at an auction in 2017, Duvivier painted a couple of feathered specimens with similar “black-comma claws,” engaging each other on two kinds of vegetation spread across the plate (3c).
Looking at the detail photos (3b and 3c) of the faience plate with the “notched” edge in 3a we see once again the “black-comma claws” present on these birds.(ii)
The bird on the right has turned and lowered its head, and appears to be preening its feathers. The fact that this unusual pose and the “black-comma claws” are repeated in the decoration of the Mennecy teapot below (4) indicates that Duvivier also painted the birds on this piece during his first stay at Sceaux – and it’s probably not the last time we shall see these helpful clues.(iii)
4 A Mennecy soft-paste porcelain teapot decorated with birds by Fidelle Duvivier, c. 1766-68. Height 11 cm. ©Studio Sebert – Beaussant Lefèvre, Paris.
NOTES
(i) See blogposts 9 – of August 27, 2017, and 12 – of January 16, 2018.
(ii) “Sceaux assiette à bordure déchiquetée en faïence à décor polychrome de deux oiseaux posés sur des branches au centre du bassin, de tiges de fruits sur l’aile, peignés en bordure.”
Pescheteau-Badin, Paris – 8 November 2017, lot 533.
(iii) “Mennecy théière couverte à décor polychrome d’oiseaux branchés et de peignés bleus sur l’anse et le déversoir. XVIIIe siècle. Hauteur: 11 cm. Éclat à une prise du couvercle.” Beaussant Lefèvre, Paris – 19 February 2016, lot 164.