Sèvres porcelain teapot (part of a service)
date: label: date made
content: 1811-1812
notes: label: Description
content: The teapot has elaborate decoration in gold and platinum on a deep blue-black ground. The body of the teapot has a stylized floral diaper pattern covering the surface with two gold-framed portraits of French writer and philosopher Michel de Montaigne and the poet Francois de Malherbe. The same diaper pattern is on the cover. A gold foliate border circles the shoulder of the teapot with platinum dots above and below; above the foot ring there is a fret pattern in gold and platinum. Gold bands finish the rims and foot ring on the pot and cover, with the handle and spout also heavily gilded.
label: Description
content: All the five parts of this tea service have portraits in miniature of significant French Renaissance writers, poets, theologians, and historians. The writer and highly original thinker Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), the poet and literary critic Francois Malherbe (1555-1628) have their portraits on this teapot. The most likely source for the portrait of Montaigne is a print (1774) by Augustin de Saint-Aubin (1736-1807) after an earlier painting of the French School. The portrait of Malherbe was copied by Sèvres artists, possibly from a print by Lucas Vorsterman after the painter Daniel Dumonstier (1574-1646), and this likeness was also a probable source for a painting of Malherbe by the French artist Robert Lefévre (1755-1830). Daniel Dumonstier was a court artist and a friend of Malherbe.
label: Description
content: This teapot belongs to the Alfred Duane Pell collection in the National Museum of American History. Before Pell (1864-1924) became an Episcopalian clergyman quite late in life, he and his wife Cornelia Livingstone Crosby Pell (1861-1938) travelled widely, and as they travelled they collected European porcelains, silver, and furniture. Pell came from a wealthy family and he purchased the large William Pickhardt Mansion on 5th Avenue and East 74th Street in which to display his vast collection. The Smithsonian was one of several institutions to receive substantial bequests from the Reverend Pell which laid the foundation for their collections of European applied arts.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: France: Île-de-France, Sevres
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Ceramics and Glass
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content: Industry & Manufacturing
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content: Art
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content: Domestic Furnishings
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CE.P-1061Aab
label: catalog number
content: P-1061Aab
label: accession number
content: 225282
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Teapot
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: "gold" (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: green (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: red (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: polychrome (overall surface decoration color name)
label: Physical Description
content: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 8 1/4 in x 8 5/16 in x 4 7/8 in; 20.955 cm x 21.11375 cm x 12.3825 cm