18th Century St.Cloud Porcelain Cup and Saucer
An 18th Century French Soft-Paste Porcelain `Trembleuse` cup and saucer, St.Cloud factory c.1720-1740. Thickly potted with a lead glaze over a gadroon moulded form. Decorated with a Lambrequin design in Blue and White.
SOLD
- Condition
- In perfect condition.
- Size
- Diameter of the saucer : 13.5 cm (5 1/3 inches). Height of the cup : 7.2 cm (2 3/4 inches).
- Provenance
- Cynthia Postan Collection - item 23, Label to base. Lady Cynthia Rosalie Postan (25 June 1918 – 12 November 2017) was a British debutante, secretary for MI5, translator and editor, horticulturalist, and porcelain collector. During the Second World War, Postan worked as a secretary for MI5 after she was introduced to its head, Sir Vernon Kell, through family connections. She was initially stationed at Wormwood Scrubs where operation XX was in progress. She later worked at Blenheim Palace during which time Anthony Blunt, later revealed to be a Soviet spy, took her to lunch. Transferred to London, Postan met her future husband, the University of Cambridge economic historian Michael Postan, who was head of the Russia section of the Ministry of Economic Warfare. They married in 1944 and had two sons together.
- Stock number
- 25803
- References
- For a Similar 18th century Saint Cloud teabowl and Saucer See : French Porcelain, A Catalogue of the British Museum (Aileen Dawson, British Museum Press,1994) Page 24, Item 25.
Photos
Information
Lambrequin Designs on French Ceramics
This design is in a style traditionally related to the great Baroque designer to the French court of Louis XIV, Jean Berain (1640-1711). Berain`s style of grotesques and strap-work were used on all types of decorative art from furniture to tapestries, silver ware and just about anything else. His stylistic language is based on a Renaissance understanding of a type of Roman design. However the designs one finds on St.Cloud porcelain are more linear and weightless, they are more in keeping with ornamental prints. Of the more complex designs, a few have been possible to identify from the original source material. They are not taken from Berain designs but from the etchings of a prolific architect Jacques Androuent Du Cereau, who early in his life spent time working in Italy (in the 1530`s). However it seems to me inconceivable that his designs would have been used in the early 18th century unless Berain and his grotesque style were so popular. Both are interpretations of Classical Roman design but from different generations.
The Postan Collection
Lady Cynthia Rosalie Postan (25 June 1918 – 12 November 2017) was a British debutante, secretary for MI5, translator and editor, horticulturalist, and porcelain collector. During the Second World War, Postan worked as a secretary for MI5 after she was introduced to its head, Sir Vernon Kell, through family connections. She was initially stationed at Wormwood Scrubs where operation XX was in progress. She later worked at Blenheim Palace during which time Anthony Blunt, later revealed to be a Soviet spy, took her to lunch. Transferred to London, Postan met her future husband, the University of Cambridge economic historian Michael Postan, who was head of the Russia section of the Ministry of Economic Warfare. They married in 1944 and had two sons together.
