Plate thumbnail 1
Plate thumbnail 2
On display
Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Plate

ca. 1810 (made)
Artist/Maker
Darte Frères (maker)
Place of origin
Paris (made)

Plate of porcelain painted with enamels and gilded. With the bust of Emperor Vespasian in imitation of a shell cameo. Painted as if in relief in a medallion with a dark brown ground on which the name 'VESPASIEN' is reserved. The medallion is enclosed by a laurel wreath in brown on a gold ground, beyond which on the rim is a gilt oak wreath on a dark blue ground.

Object details

Categories
Ceramics
Porcelain
Object type
Plate
Materials and techniques
Porcelain painted with enamels and gilded
Porcelain
Painted
Gilded
Brief description
Plate of porcelain painted with enamels and gilded, Darte Frères, Rue de la Roquette, Paris, ca. 1810
Physical description
Plate of porcelain painted with enamels and gilded. With the bust of Emperor Vespasian in imitation of a shell cameo. Painted as if in relief in a medallion with a dark brown ground on which the name 'VESPASIEN' is reserved. The medallion is enclosed by a laurel wreath in brown on a gold ground, beyond which on the rim is a gilt oak wreath on a dark blue ground.
Dimensions
  • Diameter: 22.9cm
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'DARTE FRERES A PARIS' (Stencilled in red)
  • 'VESPASIEN' (Next to the bust)
Credit line
Presented by Lt. Col. K. Dingwall, DSO with Art Fund support
Subjects depicted
Bust
Emperor
Titus Flavius, Vespasian
Bibliographic references
  • Régine Plinval de Guillebon. La Porcelaine à Paris sous Le Consulat et L’Empire: Fabrication, Commerce, Etude topographique des immeubles ayant abrité des manufactures de porcelaine. Geneva: Droz, 1985, pp. 80-82, 124-126. The three Darte brothers; Louis-Joseph, Joseph and Jean François, joined forces to buy a porcelain factory at 3, rue de Charonne in 1795. The partnership was dissolved in August 1803 and another, between Louis Joseph and Jean François, was established in December 1804, on the occasion of their purchase of the rue de la Roquette porcelain factory from Maurice Coeurdassier. In the sections for both factories, the author reiterates the difficulty of differentiating the Darte family's products from each one. The marks 'Darte', and 'Darte Freres' could equally apply to both, although after 1809 the latter mark is thought generally to have been accompanied by the address of their Palais Royal shop. However, on C.375-1914 the manufactory was probably following the lead of the Sèvres factory in the choice of cameo style decoration of a classical head. This is known at Sèvres on plates from c. 1808; the famous 'Service Iconographique' with similar decoration was delivered to Cardinal Fesch in July 1811, and the 'Table of the Grand Commanders', originally ordered by Napoleon I, was in production 1806-12 (Royal Collection).
  • Tamara Préaud et al The Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory: Alexander Brogniart and the Triumph of Art And Industry, 1800-1847, New Haven and London: Yale University Press for Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, 1997, see no. 23, p. 191 for Service 'Iconographique'.
  • Geoffrey de Bellaigue. French Porcelain in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, Royal Collection Publications, 2009, 3 vols. See Vol III, no. 305 for Table of the Grand Commanders, pp. 1062-1078.
Collection
Ceramics Collection
Accession number
C.375-1914

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O280200/plate-darte-frères/
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