France, Sèvres / 1786
Footed Dish (soucoupe à pied)
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Footed Dish (soucoupe à pied) as ceramic (France, Sèvres · 1786).
The dark blue ground that rings the edge of this plate is known as beau bleu (beautiful blue) and derived its color from cobalt added to the enamel.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this ceramic as soft-paste porcelain with enamel and gilt decoration and credits Sèvres Porcelain Factory (French, est. 1756).
The museum's collection notes: These dishes may have supported cups of sweet ices or pyramidal displays of fruits or sweetmeats as part of a dessert or tea service. On the reverse of the plate the two birds pictured are identified as a Petit Perruche, du Pérou (budgerigar from Peru) and Harle huppé, Mâle (male red-breasted merganser.) Their images were modeled after engravings in naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc’s Natural History of Birds , a book which regularly inspired Sèvres porcelain paintings in the 1780s and 90s.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtFooted Dish (soucoupe à pied)Original explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.