Two Vincennes soft paste porcelain ½-bottle wine coolers. Bleu lapis ground with elaborate gilded decoration incorporating mosaic and trellis panels, flowers and foliage. The top moulding is gilded along its rim and bottom edge. A gold line marks the join of the body and foot; the foot rim is also gilded. The handles, formed by two acanthus-leaf scrolls flanking an acanthus plume, in white and gold, are hollowed on the underside. The two trefoil-shaped reserves are painted in polychrome colours, each with two birds in a landscape setting.

The coolers, which are among the finest examples of their type, are thought possibly to have belonged to Madame de Pompadour.

They correspond in shape to a model which pre-dates March 1753. An indication of their early date is the manner in which ground colour extends over the rim of the coolers. On later models, the rim and foot are generally decorated in white and gold. It was not until 1752 that pieces decorated with bleu lapis ground were recorded in any quantity.

Text adapted from French Porcelain for English Palaces, Sèvres from the Royal Collection, London, 2009