Covered pot in Chinese porcelaine with Pompadour decoration, 18th century

Covered pot in Chinese porcelain with polychrome Pompadour decoration in Famille Rose enamels of flowers and blossoming branches of pomegranates and peonies framing two escutcheons with fish motifs attributed to Madame de Pompadour.
Circa 1750, Qianlong period (1736-1795).
H. 15 cm.
Reglued lid.

Art historians have since the nineteenth century attributed the commission of this service to the famous mistress of King Louis XV, the Marquise de Pompadour. Indeed, the eagles and the fish in the cartouches would symbolize respectively the king Louis XV, and the marquise of Pompadour whose surname was Poisson. This attractive hypothesis has been questioned by Michel Beurdeley who argues that the Marquise de Pompadour could not have tolerated a service whose decorative elements recall her plebeian origins. The richness of the decoration, the colorful palette particularly appreciated in France at that time and especially the elegant, refined and sought-after forms of the service's pieces make it in any case the object of a commission from an important and wealthy member of Louis XV's court.