TOURNAI - Lot 52

TOURNAI Plain-edged plate in soft porcelain from the "Buffon large birds" service, with polychrome decoration in the center of a yellow parrot perched on a branch, the wing with a blue border. Early 19th century D : 24 cm After the engraving Buffon, Histoire naturelle des oiseaux t. VII. Pl. 13. Reproduced in Tournai des porcelaines et des oiseaux Crédit Communal 1994 page 68. This piece probably belongs to the Lecocq service. Part of the service known as "Aux oiseaux de Buffon", painted in part by Joseph Mayer and commissioned by King William I of Holland in 1815, but not delivered in 1830, was presented by the city of Tournai to Charles Lecocq, a member of its council. Similar piece illustrated in "Porcelaine de Tournai. Collection du Musée d'Arras", Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Arras, June 1991, p.85, no. 112. A similar plate and compotier are also in the Musée Royal de Mariemont. See La porcelaine de Tournai. Histoire d'une manufacture 1750-1891 by Jean Lemaire, La Renaissance du livre, Tournai, 1999, p.44 and p.147. Provenance: Private collection, Tournai