A pair of Sèvres chestnut baskets with pierced covers (Marronnière), circa 1760

The foliate piercing heightened in gilding, applied with interlaced branch handles, 11.4cm high, 16cm long, interlaced LL monograms, gilder's marks for J-B-E Vandé (père), incised marks (missing stands)

Provenance:
Property from the Collection of Dr. Johannes Ralph Lafrenz

Marronnières were made at the Sèvres factory from 1757 onwards and various shapes are described in their records: unie, à compartiments, contourné, ovale, à ozier, à jour, forme Pompadour and tenant au plateau. However, it is not clear which shape refers to the present lot. Chestnut baskets were often sold singly and in pairs, which were often included in dessert services, such as in the service given by Louis XV to Maria-Theresia in 1758. See Rosalind Savill, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain (1988), Vol II, p.759, no. C473, and Adrian Sassoon, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Vincennes and Sèvres Porcelain - Catalogue of the Collections (1991), no. 12, for a full discussion on marronnières and a list of known examples.

Another pair of chestnut baskets on fixed stands of basket shape are in the Wadsworth Atheneum, see Linda H. Roth and Clare Le Corbeiller, French Eighteenth-Century Porcelain at the Wadsworth Atheneum, The J. Pierpont Morgan Collection (2000), p. 260, no. 134, and a single one of different shape and separate stand in the David Collection, Copenhagen, illustrated in Svend Eriksen, The David Collection, French Porcelain (1980), no. 54a.