A soft-paste porcelain dinner and dessert service with bleu céleste ground, reserves painted with bouquets surrounded by gilt palm fronds, joined by floral garlands

A 1er service and service à dessert (dinner and dessert service) of soft-paste Sèvres porcelain, bleu céleste ground and gilded decoration. The reserves are painted in polychrome with fruit and flowers enclosed in frames of tooled and burnished gold formed by crossed palms at the top, their tips overlying crossed laurel branches at the base.

The service formed part of the diplomatic gifts given in 1783 by Louis XVI to the then British Ambassador to the Court of Versailles, George, 4th Duke of Manchester (1737–88), who signed the Treaty on 3 September 1783. He had been appointed ambassador to the Court of Versailles on 9 April 1783 for the specific purpose of negotiating the terms. The Duke received the customary diamond-encrusted gold box, incorporating a portrait of the king, valued at 31,453 livres. Exceptionally, the Duchess also received a present, this magnificent bleu céleste Sèvres dinner and dessert service, valued at 21,080 livres.

The Duke described the service as of ‘Seve China … [in] blue and gold of the best Sort’. In the register of official presents kept by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs the service is described as ‘Un Service de Porcelaine de Sève fonds bleu celeste peint en groupes de fleurs et fruits doré en Palmes et Guirlandes dont le bruni imite la Cizelure’. It is further specified that the service, valued at 19,872 livres, was a gift to the Duchess in her capacity as ‘Ambassadrice de la Cour de Londres auprès du Roi à l’occasion du Traité définitif de la paix entre la france et l’angleterre’.

The only precedent for such a gift was the service given by Louis XV in 1763 to the Duchess of Bedford whose husband, the 4th Duke, had signed the treaty which brought to an end the Seven Years War (1756-63) between France and England.

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

241 pieces: Dinner Service - 2 circular tureens and covers with their trays, 2 oval tureens and covers with their trays, 24 soup plates, 5 single salt cellars, 4 double salt cellars, 2 triple salt cellars, 2 mustard pots, 2 butter dishes, 16 juice pots, 4 trays for the above, 2 sauce boats with their saucers, 6 octagonal salad bowls in two sizes, 2 oil and vinegar carafe trays, 6 egg cups.

Dessert Service: 104 plates, 3 round fruit dishes, 4 shell-shaped fruit dishes, 4 square fruit dishes, 2 oval fruit dishes, 6 sugar bowls and covers, 3 trays with attached jam pots and covers, 2 half-size bottle coolers, 4 smaller bottle coolers, 2 oval liqueur-bottle coolers, 2 monteiths, 2 ice- pails, 14 ice-cream cups, 4 heart-shaped trays, 1 punch bowl.

Measurements - Dinner Service: circular tureens and covers .1 25.8 x 29.5 x 23.5 .2 26.0 x 29.8 x 23.6, tureen trays .1 6.5 x 46.0 x 38.3 .2 6.8 x 46.1 x 38.4, oval tureens and covers .1 24.1 x 33.0 x 33.3 x 20.2 .2 24.5 x 33.3 x 20.2, oval trays 6.0 x 45.8 x 36.5, soup plates 1–.24 3.7 to 4.2 x 3.5 to 24.3, single salt cellars .1–.5 3.8 to 4.0 x 8.5 to 8.7 x 6.3 to 6.7, double salt cellars .1–.4 3.7 to 4.0 x 12.5 to 12.8 x 6.9 to 7.0, triple salt cellars .1 8.5 x 9.7 x 9.7 .2 8.6 x 9.7 x 9.7, mustard pots and covers .1 9.0 x 8.1 x 6.0 .2 9.2 x 8.1 x 6.2, butter dishes and covers .1 8.3 x 19.5 .2 8.8 x 19.8, juice pots .1–.16 7.0 to 7.8 x 7.6 to 8.3 x 6.0 to 6.4, circular trays for juice pots .1–.4 3.4 to 3.8 x 29.0 to 29.3, sauce boats .1 9.2 x 23.5 x 17.8, 2 .2 9.3 x 23.7 x 18.2, saucers for sauce boats .1 3.1 x 29.8 x 25.1 .2 3.2 x 30.1 x 25.2, octagonal salad bowls 1st size .1 10.7 x 28.9 .2 11.3 x 29.2, octagonal salad bowls 2nd size .1-.4 7.6 to 8.0 x 24.6 to 25.3, trays for oil and vinegar carafes .1 6.8 x 26.2 x 13.3 .2 7.0 x 26.6 x 13.5, egg cups .1–.6 4.4 to 4.5 x 4.7 to 4.8 cm

Measurements - Dessert Service: dessert plates .1–.104 2.4 to 3.0 x 23.8 to 24.9, circular fruit dishes .1–.3 4.0 to 4.3 x 20.8 to 21.2, shell-shaped fruit dishes .1–.4 4.7 to 5.6 x 22.0 to 23.5, 21.8 to 22.0, square fruit dishes .1–.4 3.9 to 4.2 x 21.4 to 21.8 x 21.6 to 21.7, oval fruit dishes .1 3.6 x 28.8 x 19.3 .2 3.6 x 27.1 x 20.2, sugar bowls and covers .1–.6 10.5 to 12.0 x 23.0 to 23.6 x 15.0 to 15.5, trays with two attached jam pots and covers .1–.3 8.3 to 8.7 x 24.5 to 24.8 x 17.3 to 17.5, half-size bottle coolers .1 16.9 x 23.0 x 18.5 .2 17.0 x 23.0 x 18.5, smaller bottle coolers .1–.4 15.1 to 15.5 x 19.9 to 20.2 x 15.5 to 15.6, oval liqueur-bottle coolers .1 11.2 x 30.2 x 14.4 .2 11.5 x 30.6 x 15.0, monteiths .1 13.0 x 29.0 x 20.2 .2 13.3 x 29.5 x 20.8, ice-pails with covers and liners .1 21.4 x 23.1 x 20.0 .2 22.0 x 23.2 x 20.0, ice-cream cups .1–.14 6.0 to 6.4 x 7.0 to 7.1 x 5.6 to 5.9, heart-shaped trays .1–.4: 2.5 to 2.7 x 20.5 to 20.7 x 20.6 to 21.2, punch bowl 14.3 x 33.2 cm