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Cup (Gobelet "litron")
24.151.1

CERAMICS, FRENCH
Drinking Vessel
Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory (Manufacture royale de porcelaine de Sèvres); LeGuay, Etienne-Henri (gilder); Le Grand, Louis-Antoine (painter)
FRANCE: Sèvres
Ca. 1779
Soft paste porcelain
H. 2 15/16 in.
4 x 5 Color Transparency, 1995

Contrasting with the dark blue (beau bleu) of the cup and the lavish thick gilding is an oval medallion containing a bust portrait of Benjamin Franklin in grisaille. An American envoy to the French court, Franklin was so widely regarded by the French as an apostle of liberty that his likeness appeared in all kinds of media, from prints and medals to porcelain cups such as these, of which fourteen were produced. In the center of the saucer is a cluster of emblems of the Franco-American Alliance of 1777, in which Franklin played an instrumental role.

Bequest of Marjorie Merriweather Post, 1973

2 Related Media Items

4 x 5 Color Transparency, 1995 4 x 5 Color Transparency, 1995

1 Related Publications

A Taste for Splendor: Russian Imperial and European Treasures from the Hillwood Museum
Odom, Anne and Arend, Liana Paredes
Art Services International, Alexandria, Virginia
1998
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