A Rare Dessert Plate, Sèvres 1805/06

porcelain, the well with polychrome painted birds and a butterfly in a clouded sky, wide gilt edging in the inside rim, the lip with etched gilt border on red brown ground, gilt edging, diameter 23.6 cm, incised N, red mark, light scratches to the well, (Hr)
The gold decoration on the lip is almost identical to that on the so-called “Olympic Service”, which was commissioned by Napoleon I for the wedding of Hieronymus Bonaparte and Katharina von Württemberg and manufactured from 1804-1807. However, after the Treaty of Tilsit was signed in 1807, Napoleon decided to give the service to Czar Alexander I.
As the plates with the decorative variant were produced in the same period as the Olympic Service and the plate offered here also feature the mark that was reserved exclusively for the production of imperial commissions, it can be assumed that this decorative variant was produced at the same time or as part of the Olympic Service and was part of the gift to Czar Alexander I.
A plate with the same decoration is preserved in the Kremlin Museum in Moscow.