On display
Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Pot a sucre Hebert

Sugar Basin
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.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Parts
This object consists of 2 parts.

  • Sugar Basin
  • Sugar Basin Cover
TitlePot 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
  • Height: 8.9cm
  • Width: 7.4cm
Marks and inscriptions
  • Interlaced 'L's in blue enamel with date letter 'f' (Maker's mark; ;)
  • a dagger in blue enamel for Étienne Evans (Painter's mark; ; ;)
  • crossed circle (; incised;)
Gallery label
(27/03/2003)
British Galleries:
In truth, I do not mean to make my house so Gothic, as to exclude convenience and modern refinements in luxury', wrote Walpole. He bought this sugar bowl and cream jug (as part of a breakfast set) on one of his trips to Paris in 1765 or 1766, when he spent more than £400 on porcelain.
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 createdMarch 27, 2003
Record URL
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