» Some Duvivier decoration on Sceaux porcelain

1 General view of the park and present-day 19th-century château at Sceaux which houses the Musée de l’Île-de-France, a museum of local history with ceramic holdings. Photo: UFLY pour le Département des Hauts-de-Seine

2b Detail of a soft-paste porcelain Sceaux cup decorated by Fidelle Duvivier (cf. 2a).

When Fidelle Duvivier returned to France to work at Sceaux for the second time he was a young man in his early thirties. He had with him his English wife Elizabeth (née Thomas), who was soon to give birth to their second child, a girl, on February 20, 1775.(i) The child’s baptism was recorded in the registry of the Catholic church of Saint Jean-Baptiste, and is the only documentation we have of the family’s presence in Sceaux. Prior to their arrival, Duvivier had signed a four-year contract to work for William Duesbury of Derby beginning in late 1769, and he had done much putto (cherub) decoration with little winged allegorical amours on clouds in the popular French style of François Boucher. He was therefore well prepared to do similar decoration on Sceaux porcelain (2a, 2b) of the Glot period (1772 – c. 1794), as the examples here demonstrate.

3 A view of the original château of Sceaux from the top of Diana’s Walk. An etching from a series of châteaux by Jacques Rigaud, c. 1740. Photo: Bibliothèque nationale de France.

2a A Sceaux soft-paste porcelain saucer and cup decorated by F. Duvivier in camaïeu rose with putti on clouds in the style of Boucher, c. 1775. The cup shows a selection of “trophies” or allegorical symbols for music, literature and love (a bow and a quiver of arrows). The reverse side of the cup shows another putto (2b). Height of cup 6 cm, diameter of saucer 12.1 cm. S.X. incised marks on both pieces. Private collection. Photos: Bruno Estienne, Paris

Such work can be found at the Musée de la Céramique (now also called Cité de la Céramique) in Sèvres (4) and in the Musée de l’Île-de-France located in the present-day Château de Sceaux (1), as mentioned and shown in my book.(ii)

4a A Sceaux soft-paste porcelain plate (à bord festonné) with scalloped edge, decorated by

Fidelle Duvivier in the style of Boucher in camaïeu rose with putti on clouds and with one holding a bird, c. 1775. S.X. incised mark. Diameter 24 cm.

4b (above) Detail of decoration at left (MNC 23253). Musée de la Céramique (Cité de la Céramique, Sèvres). Photos by the author.

Richard Glot, who bought the Sceaux manufactory from Jacques Chapelle in 1772, guided its fortunes for nearly twenty years. At the time of this purchase, Glot was also serving as a squire and quartermaster of the king’s house, and was a member of the immediate staff under the Duke of Penthièvre, who became the patron of the manufactory in 1775.(iii) By law Glot was obliged to register the marks in use on his manufactured goods with the local Lieutenant General of Police. So on July 12, 1773 he submitted “S.X.” as the official mark, and it appears in incised form on most of the plates and coffee wares shown here. In addition, I found it on several Sceaux porcelain hot water jugs (pots à eau) that Duvivier decorated with colorful birds.(iv)

5a A Sceaux soft-paste porcelain plate (à bord festonné) with scalloped edge, decorated by F. Duvivier in camaïeu rose in the style of Boucher, with putti making music on clouds, c. 1775. Diameter 24 cm. .

5b The incised S X mark on the reverse of the plate at left. From the collection of Steve and Ginger Spiegel. Photos courtesy of the owners.

6 A Sceaux soft-paste porcelain plate (à bord festonné) with scalloped edge, decorated with putti decoration in camaïeu rose by F. Duvivier, c. 1775. S.X. incised mark. Diameter 24 cm. Musée de l’Île-de-France, Sceaux (inv. 77.7.1).

7 “Architecture,” an 18th-century etching and engraving by Johann Georg Hertel after Boucher. Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession no. 64.682.223).

For the decoration of the plate at left (6), Duvivier may have borrowed several elements from the engraving above, although the theme is not architecture.

Other Duvivier examples can be found in the downstairs collections of the Musée de l’Île-de-France in the present-day Sceaux château: a jug (9), a saucer (inv. 57.1.1.), which is illustrated in Footsteps (p. 33), another cup and saucer (inv. 79.18.1.) of similar shape to those shown in (2a), and a teapot for a déjeuner (théière calabre, inv. 51.1.1.) decorated with riding figures in a landscape. All of this work was done in camaïeu rose.

8 A Sceaux soft-paste porcelain plate (à bord festonné) with scalloped edge, decorated by F. Duvivier in camaïeu rose in the style of Boucher, with putti playing with a horn on clouds, c. 1775. No marks. Diameter 24 cm. Photo: Christophe Perlès, Paris

9 A Sceaux soft-paste porcelain jug (pot à anse) decorated by F. Duvivier in camaïeu rose in the style of Boucher, with putti playing with a horn on clouds, c. 1775. Incised S X mark. H 13.6 cm. Musée de l’Île-de-France, Sceaux (inv. 77.8.1). Photo by the author.

NOTES

(i) Their first child, a boy, had been born in Derby, England and died as an infant of three months.

(ii) This Boucher-inspired decoration, done at nearly every factory where he was employed, is discussed with examples in In the Footsteps of Fidelle Duvivier, pp. 29, 30, 33, 34, and 63-69.

(iii) For more information about the Duke of Penthièvre see Footsteps, pp. 7-9, 30-32, 34, 37, 48-49.

(iv) See Footsteps, pp. 20-22, 36, 52, as well as Blogposts #5 (Feb. 20, 2017) and #7 (May 24, 2017).

Some Duvivier decoration on Sceaux porcelain

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