Sèvres was the porcelain manufacturer whose tableware would adorn the dining rooms of the wealthy and titled of Europe. Louis XV often ordered production of table services as gifts for foreign rulers or ambassadors. This tureen and plates are from the Bedford Service, and were part of a 183 piece service given to the Duke and Duchess of Bedford, John and Diana Russell, of England. John Russell (ancestor of Bertrand Russell) was stationed in Paris as a diplomat. Russell became first lord of the Admiralty in the administration of Henry Pelham in 1744. He was subsequently lord privy seal in Lord Bute's Cabinet of 1761. He wanted peace at any cost, was sent to France to negotiate in 1762, and signed the Peace of Paris in 1763, perhaps only coincidentally the same year in which he and the duchess were presented with their dinnerware service from Sèvres.
The shapes were designed by the metalsmith, Jean Claude Duplessis, and his signature treatment of the feet of the tureen can be seen here.The border treatments on the plates and the tureen are done in Sèvres 'bleu lapiz,' a very dark, almost cobalt blue-black overglaze. Atop the blue overglaze, a pattern in gold luster called 'vermicule' (literally, wormlike), winds its way around the plate. The use of three white, oval shapes against a dark background for the borders is another design characteristic of Sèvres. A lingering vestige of Kakiemon influences can be seen in this service in the rather large amount of negative space employed on the plates, in the color palette, and most noticeably, in the panel on the tureen, where courting birds alight amidst flowering trees.
Tureen and two plates from the Bedford Service, Sèvres Porcelain, France 1763 CE
Soft Paste Porcelain with overglaze enamel and luster
