Teapot and cover of soft-paste porcelain with a pale yellow ground reserved with panels painted with birds in enamels and gilded, painted by Étienne Evans, Sèvres porcelain factory, Sèvres, 1793-1800.

Teapot and cover of soft-paste porcelain with a pale yellow ground reserved with two oval panels painted with birds in enamels and gilded. The birds stand in naturalistic landscapes, one long-legged bird faces right and there is a fasces enclosing a dagger in the background. The other bird has reddish colouring and faces left with a wheelbarrow and pick in the background. Under the spout there is a Mason's set square and plumbline on a laurel wreath.

Bequeathed by Mr John George Joicey

The Revolutionary symbols on this teapot are the fasces in the background of one bird (a Roman republican symbol indicating strength in unity) bound with a red, white and blue ribbon (the tricolore, symbolic of patriotism combining white for the Bourbon royal house of France, and blue and red for the city of Paris, the tricolore cockade was to become the emblem of the citizen-warrior), and under the spout, a triangle or set square with plumbline, a Divinity symbol being the principal symbol of equality. See Roditi (below) for a detailed discussion of Revolutionary symbolism.

The following information is taken from Geoffrey de Bellaigue's catalogue of the Royal Collection (see below). The birds are after the illustrations to the Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux by George-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon, (quarto and folio editions, 1770-83 and 1770-86 respectively) A series of hand-coloured engravings were commissioned from the artist François Nicolas Martinet to accompany this publication in 1764 and were only completed in 1780. These illustrations occur on Sèvres as early as 1779, but were copied for the first time on a service of 1780-82. This green ground service was bought by Charles-Philippe, comte d'Artois (a younger brother of Louis XVI and later Charles X) in 1782, for presentation to a Spaniard, according to David Peters. Two sauceboats of 1780, probably from this service, are catalogue entry163, pp.660-664. Peters (see below, pp. 655-656) cites detailed correspondence regarding the passage of the service to Spain and suggests the service was probably destined for a member of the Spanish royal family.

De Bellaigue (cat. entry 223), records that the Sèvres factory initially borrowed some of the most colourful prints from the abbé Nolin in 1781: 'The selection was evidently too restrictive, for five years later the comte d'Angiviller agreed to the purchase of a complete set and to the return of those borrowed from the abbé.' [letter from d'Angivillier to Antoine Régnier, Director of the manufactory, of 28th March 1781].'There must have been a continuing demand for illustrations of Buffon's work in the manufactory, as in 1792 a further purchase was sanctioned of a 'Collection des Oiseaux de Buffon' priced at 790 livres. Nor was this interest confined to Sèvres. Listed in the inventory drawn up following the death of N-J-H Nast, the Paris porcelain manufacturer, dated 15 July 1817, was 'une partie de la Collection Des Oiseaux de Buffon comprising thirty fascicles.'

Regarding the introduction of the 'RF' mark in place of the royal interlaced Ls, de Bellaigue in cat. entry 234, p. 866 (Vol III) states that the change was made at the behest of the comte Dominique-Joseph Garat, Minister of Justice from 19th March to 19th August 1793. In a letter to Régnier dated '17 juillet L'an 2 de la Republique' he wrote that in order to avoid offending the sensibilities of 'L'homme devenu Libre' he thinks it necessary to change the mark to the word Sèvres, accompanied by the intitials of the French Republic, R.F. and to put this into effect as soon as possible.

Roth and Corbeillier (see below, p. 249) give the following commentary on the cups and the painter Evan's work: 'The painting of the birds on the Museum's pieces is sloppy and may be attributed to the minimal skill of Evans, even though he was one of the factory's more experienced bird painters. He was described in the factory staff register in 1755 as being a mediocre bird painter, with little hope for improvement.....The overall quality of the paste, glaze, painting, and gilding reflects the diminishing standards in use at the factory during the French Revolution, and especially during the period known as The Terror.'

Etienne Evans worked at Vincennes/Sèvres from 1752-1807.

This teapot was made at the Sevres factory in France in the late 1700s. The porcelain factory was owned by King Louis XVI until his execution in 1793 during the French Revolution when all his property passed to the new revolutionary government. Such was the prestige of the porcelain factory that production, although it was severely disrupted for a time, never actually stopped. This teapot bears the new mark 'Sèvres R.F.' for République Française instead of the old interlaced Ls mark which was the cipher of the French kings.
The decoration copies illustrations in a famous scientific treatise on birds: Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux by George-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon, with hand-coloured engravings by the artist François Nicolas Martinet. This massive work was issued in parts from 1770 until 1786 and Sèvres started using it as a source of decoration from as early as 1779. The first major service to be illustrated in this way was bought by the comte d'Artois, the younger brother of Louis XVI in 1782. It is thought that the service was sent to Spain as a gift from Artois to a member of the Spanish royal family.

It is interesting that this bird decoration that had been associated with the close family of the king, on this teapot has been 'revolutionised' by the inclusion of a revolutionary symbol in the landscape. To the right of the long-legged bird there is a fasces, a Roman republican emblem of a bundle of sticks, symbolising the idea of strength in unity. To emphasise the association with the new regime, the sticks are bound here by a red, white and blue tricolore ribbon. Under the spout is a triangle and plumbline, a symbol commonly used in Freemasonry to symbolise the Divinity and equality, that was adopted by the French revolutionaries.

This teapot would originally have had cups, a sugar bowl and a milk jug to match, and possibly also a tray. The painter was called Etienne Evans. He worked at the factory for over 50 years and specialised in bird painting. He inscribed the birds' names, copied from the prints in Buffon's volumes, underneath each piece, along with his own identification mark of a dagger.

C.1339&A-1919