Day 188 - Sevres desk and cup



September 18, 2019

The Met, I learn, is the world's largest repository of furniture adorned with hand-painted porcelain plaques made at the royal porcelain works at Sevres, and gallery 529 is home to many of these pieces. Today's first object, a small writing desk, is my favorite for its sheer loveliness and refinement. Perhaps 26 inches wide, 14 inches deep, and 32 inches high, it was made around 1774 of oak veneered with tulipwood, amaranth, mahogany, and stained sycamore, along with gilt bronze and symmetrically arranged soft paste porcelain plaques of various sizes and shapes, and is lined on the interior with velvet. The white plaques are set into a brilliant green ground and are delicately painted with flowers in shades of rose, violet, blue, and gold. The desk looks ornamental but is actually fully functional: The front drawer, when pulled out, reveals a writing surface, while the drawers at the top  stored writing implements. I read that this type of desk was called a "bonheur-du-jour"; I can readily imagine the daily pleasure the desk gave its owner, since I feel pleasure just looking at it.

I find the second object irresistible, partly because it defied my expectations. It's a very small (perhaps 2  1/2 inches high) Sevres cup that at first I took to be an egg cup. But it's not quite the right shape, and it has a handle, which I've never seen in egg cups. I read the caption, and it's described as a stand for an an ice cream cup, although I wonder if it held the ice cream itself -- apparently, at that time, ice cream was served in a semi-liquid form. The ground of the cup is a gorgeous rich turquoise; against a white field framed with golden leaves, a small bird with a large crest and pink, blue, and violet plumage hovers over a green bough. Perhaps the bird on the cup is sipping nectar from the bough, just as the cup's holder wiuld enjoy the sweetness of the ice cream. 

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