Sèvres pitcher (part of a service)
date: label: date made
content: 1811-1812
notes: label: Description
content: The pitcher has elaborate decoration in gold and platinum on a deep blue-black ground. The body of the vessel has a stylized floral diaper pattern covering the surface with one gold framed miniature portrait of French writer, humanist, physician, and priest, François Rabelais (1494-1553). Gold bands circle the shoulder, rim, and foot ring of the pitcher, with the handle and interior 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 portrait of Rabelais was probably painted in onglaze enamels at Sèvres after an engraving by Parisian artist Nicolas Habert (b. ca.1650), who worked for booksellers in the production of frontispieces to the works of literary figures and other celebrated persons.
label: Description
content: This pitcher 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-1061C
label: catalog number
content: P-1061C
label: accession number
content: 225282
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Pitcher
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: 7 7/16 in x 4 5/8 in x 3 7/16 in; 18.89125 cm x 11.7475 cm x 8.73125 cm