Sevres / Paris Hand Painted Floral Baskets Cherubs King George IV Service Plate. Antique Sevres soft paste porcelain plate. Decorated with a central bouquet of hand painted flowers in pink, yellow, and blue. With scalloped / arched and floral gilding and a gold band along the inner rim of the plate. Has a border with hand painted cherubs on clouds with flowers framed by gold gilding, green laurel leaf wreaths and floral swags, gold rose swags, and hand painted floral baskets. Cobalt blue and gold gilding along the edge. Marked on the reverse with a hand painted double L mark with a U inside for 1773 and a star above. The star is a painter’s mark for Antoine Caton, who worked at Sevres from 1749 to 1798. A reciept dated October 23, 1824, reads’Un Service de Porcelaine de Sevres a Cartels d’Enfans et fleurs compose de 131 pieces 400 pounds. In the book French Porcelain in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen by Geoffrey de Bellaigue Volume II a complete inventory of the remaining pieces of this service in the royal collection state that there are five plates marked with a U for 1773 and the five pointed star for Caton. Bellaigue states that the painting of the cherubs on the five Caton plates are of higher quality than those of other plates in the service and that it is his theory that the plates bearing Caton’s mark may have been part of a group of unfinished items listed in the Sevres inventory dated 1 January 1774 under the heading Magazin de Blanc Porcelaine tendre. This is a beautiful plate with an interesting history. Has some wear to the gilding mostly along the edge and scratches to the center, but otherwise good condition. Measures approximately 9 3/4 inches wide. This is an antique and may have small in manufacture defects that do not affect the display of the piece.
