Pot a sucre Hebert
Sugar Basin
1758 (dated)
1758 (dated)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Object Type
This sugar bowl and its companion jug are from a tea service with a matching tray. Such sets are known as 'cabarets' in Britain, where they were usually for one or two people, and as déjeuners in France, where they were sometimes equipped with four cups. Eighteenth-century accounts of tea drinking in France indicate that the tea was made very strong in a small pot, and then diluted with hot water before being drunk. Tea was drunk with hot or cold milk and sweetened with white sugar. It is unlikely, however, that these pieces were ever used by Horace Walpole, their first owner, for anything other than display.
People
The service was bought by the writer, designer and collector Horace Walpole on a trip to Paris in 1765-1766. On this trip he spent more than £400 on porcelain and confessed that he bought china faster than he could pay for it.
Trading
Walpole purchased these pieces some years after they were made, so he probably bought them from the stock of a Paris dealer, rather than as new pieces from the factory. Continental porcelain could not be legally imported to Britain until 1775 unless it was declared to be for private use and not for sale.
This sugar bowl and its companion jug are from a tea service with a matching tray. Such sets are known as 'cabarets' in Britain, where they were usually for one or two people, and as déjeuners in France, where they were sometimes equipped with four cups. Eighteenth-century accounts of tea drinking in France indicate that the tea was made very strong in a small pot, and then diluted with hot water before being drunk. Tea was drunk with hot or cold milk and sweetened with white sugar. It is unlikely, however, that these pieces were ever used by Horace Walpole, their first owner, for anything other than display.
People
The service was bought by the writer, designer and collector Horace Walpole on a trip to Paris in 1765-1766. On this trip he spent more than £400 on porcelain and confessed that he bought china faster than he could pay for it.
Trading
Walpole purchased these pieces some years after they were made, so he probably bought them from the stock of a Paris dealer, rather than as new pieces from the factory. Continental porcelain could not be legally imported to Britain until 1775 unless it was declared to be for private use and not for sale.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Parts | This object consists of 2 parts.
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| Title | Pot a sucre Hebert (manufacturer's title) |
| Materials and techniques | Soft-paste porcelain, painted in enamels and gilded |
| Brief description | Sugar basin from a breakfast set |
| Physical description | Form: sinuous sides Ground: white Decoration: birds in polychrome, flowers in blue Lid Knop Form: flower and leaf knop |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions |
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| Gallery label |
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| Object history | Painted by Etienne Evans (employed 1752-1806) at the Sèvres porcelain factory, near Paris. The matching tray to this cup and saucer is now at Houghton in Norfolk. |
| Production | Date letter for 1758 |
| Summary | Object Type This sugar bowl and its companion jug are from a tea service with a matching tray. Such sets are known as 'cabarets' in Britain, where they were usually for one or two people, and as déjeuners in France, where they were sometimes equipped with four cups. Eighteenth-century accounts of tea drinking in France indicate that the tea was made very strong in a small pot, and then diluted with hot water before being drunk. Tea was drunk with hot or cold milk and sweetened with white sugar. It is unlikely, however, that these pieces were ever used by Horace Walpole, their first owner, for anything other than display. People The service was bought by the writer, designer and collector Horace Walpole on a trip to Paris in 1765-1766. On this trip he spent more than £400 on porcelain and confessed that he bought china faster than he could pay for it. Trading Walpole purchased these pieces some years after they were made, so he probably bought them from the stock of a Paris dealer, rather than as new pieces from the factory. Continental porcelain could not be legally imported to Britain until 1775 unless it was declared to be for private use and not for sale. |
| Bibliographic reference | Snodin, Michael (ed.), Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill, New Haven : Yale University Press, 2009
p.332 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 276&A-1876 |
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| Record created | March 27, 2003 |
| Record URL |
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