Clearly based on the same set of molds used to create the Bedford service, these pieces are from the Sèvres service of Madame du Barry. Mme. du Barry was the last mistress of Louis XV after the death of Mme. du Pompadour. From the Encyclopedia Britannica:
"She was born Marie-Jeanne Bécu, the illegitimate daughter of lower-class parents. After a convent education (for girls who 'ran the risk of being lost'), she was a shop assistant, under the name Jeanne Vaubernier, in a fashion house in Paris. While there she became the mistress of Jean du Barry, a Gascon nobleman who had made a fortune as a war contractor. He introduced her into Parisian high society, and her beauty captivated a succession of nobly born lovers before she attracted Louis XV's attention in 1768. She could not qualify as official royal mistress (maîtresse en titre), a position vacant since the death of Madame de Pompadour in 1764, unless she was married to a noble. Hence, du Barry arranged a nominal marriage between Jeanne and his brother, Guillaume du Barry; in April 1769 she joined Louis XV's court. She spent much of her time on the estates that Louis had given her near Louveciennes, where she earned a reputation as a generous patron of the arts. On the death of Louis XV (May 1774) and the accession of Louis XVI, Madame du Barry was banished to a nunnery; from 1776 until the outbreak of the Revolution she lived on her estates with the Duke de Brissac. In 1792 she made several trips to London, probably to give financial aid to French émigrés. Condemned as a counterrevolutionary by the Revolutionary Tribunal of Paris in December 1793, she was guillotined."
Mme. du Barry's initials, DB, form the center design on the plates, and this convention of using the initials of the owner of the service was often used by Sèvres.
Tureen and plates from the Madame du Barry Service, Sèvres Porcelain, France 1771 CE
Soft Paste Porcelain with overglaze enamel and luster
