Offered by Galerie Théorème
Manufacture Impériale de Sèvres
Pair of covered porcelain Ice-Pail on pedestals and their linings decorated in polychrome and gold with vases, foliage and palmettes on a lilac background.
Marked on the reverse ‘Sèvres’ for year 11 (1803)
Consulate period circa 1803
Height 31.5 cm Width 25.5 cm.
This service was purchased on 3 Frimmaire An 13 (24 November 1804) by the Oberkampf family (owner and creator of the Toile de Jouy factory). The decoration is described in the sale register as ‘lilac background, vases etc’.
This service was kept at the Château de Chantemerle.
The preparatory drawing for the service can be found in the SÈVRES archives, section D number 4 dated 1802 by the painter Charles-Éloi Asselin under the title ‘décorations ornements et figures’.
A large part of this service was put up for public sale in 2023, with the ice-pail on offer coming from a restocking in year 13 (1805) of a slightly different model of the service, while these, marked year 11 (1803), come from the family's original order.
The Oberkampf family illustrates the rise of a new industrial elite under the Empire. Enriched by the production of the toile de Jouy they created, they joined the circles of power and gained access to practices of social representation hitherto reserved for the aristocracy.
As such, this new industrial elite took part in the commissioning of prestigious services from the Imperial Manufactory at Sèvres, such as these two iceboxes, emblems of taste and rank under Napoleon's regime.
