Artist: Francisque-Jean-François Philippine (painter)
Organization: Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Origin: France
Date: 1788
Complex: Blue Service
Material: soft-paste porcelain
Dimensions: diameter 23.7 cm
Current Collection: The State Hermitage Museum
Inventory Number: ZF-16268
Hermitage ID: 352368
Rudanovsky Connection: Entered the Hermitage in 1919 from the collection of A. K. Rudanovsky.
A round Sèvres tray of 1788 made to carry ice-cream cups, painted with a blue ground and a garland of roses.
Tray for Ice-Cream Cups. The State Hermitage Museum.
The tray entered the Hermitage in 1919 from the collection of A. K. Rudanovsky. It is not currently on permanent display.
It is a round tray, 23.7 centimetres across, with a scalloped edge, a blue field and a central medallion of roses.
The Object
The tray is round, with a shaped rim and a shallow depression in the centre.
The rim is white, with a garland of roses framed by blue lines and gold; the inner field is deep cobalt blue; the centre is a white medallion with a circle of roses and a single rose at the middle.
A gold ring of scrolls separates the medallion from the blue field, and the rim is gilded.
The Tray
A tray for ice-cream cups is a specific object.
It carried the small cups from the sideboard to the table, and it held them during the dessert course. The cups stood on the tray, and the tray protected the cloth from drips and condensation.
The size of the tray — 23.7 centimetres — is just large enough for several cups, and its shallow depression kept them in place.
The Cups
The tray belongs with the ice-cream cups of the same service.
Several cups from the Blue Service survive in the collection, decorated with the same blue ground, white band and rose garland. The tray was made to match them, and the ensemble — tray and cups — was the unit of service.
Without the cups, the tray is a dish; with them, it is a stage for a dessert.
The Centre
The centre of the tray is a white medallion.
It is framed by a gold ring of scrolls, and it contains a circle of roses with a single rose at the middle. The roses are painted in pinks and greens, and they form a delicate, symmetrical composition.
The medallion is the tray’s focal point, and it is where the painter’s hand is most visible.
The Rim
The rim is white, with a garland of roses.
The garland runs around the edge in a continuous band, framed by blue lines and gold. The flowers are small and precise, and their pinks and greens contrast with the blue field.
The rim is the tray’s frame: it defines the edge and gives the object its lightness.
Philippine
The tray is attributed to Francisque-Jean-François Philippine, a painter at Sèvres.
Philippine was active at the factory in the 1770s and 1780s, and his work is characterised by fine flower painting. His mark on the underside identified the piece.
The attribution connects the object to a named hand, and it allows the decoration to be placed within the production of the service.
Sèvres in 1788
The tray was made in 1788, at the height of the Sèvres production.
The factory was a royal manufactory, and it supplied the court and the aristocracy with services of extraordinary quality. Its painters, gilders and modellers worked together to produce objects in which every detail was coordinated.
The tray belongs to that production: a small, precise object, painted with care and designed for a grand table.
The Blue Service
The tray belongs to the Blue Service of 1788.
The service included cups, plates, trays, bowls and compotiers, all decorated with the same blue ground, white borders and rose garlands. The tray for ice-cream cups is one of its most specific pieces.
The service was a luxury commission, and it would have been used for dessert and tea.
The Blue Field
The blue field is the tray’s depth.
It is a broad band of cobalt between the white border and the gold ring, and it gives the tray its richness. The colour is applied as a ground, fired and polished, and it is slightly uneven, as hand-applied grounds always are.
The blue makes the white border and the central medallion appear to float, and it gives the tray a sense of space.
The Scalloped Edge
The edge of the tray is scalloped.
It rises and falls in a series of curves, following the shape of the tray, and a thin gold line runs along the rim. The scalloped edge softens the outline and gives the object a decorative, almost organic quality.
The edge is also the part most exposed to wear, and the gilding is rubbed in places.
The Cups Again
The tray was made for cups.
Several cups from the Blue Service survive, each decorated with the same blue ground, white band and rose garland. The tray and the cups form an ensemble, and their design is coordinated.
In a museum, the cups and the tray are catalogued separately; in the eighteenth century, they were used together, as a single object for serving dessert.
Dessert
The tray belongs to the dessert course.
Dessert was the most decorative part of an eighteenth-century dinner: fruit, sweets, compotes and ices arranged on a table that was meant to be looked at as much as eaten.
The tray, with its blue field and rose garlands, was made for that moment: a small stage for cups of ice cream.
The Collector
The tray came to the Hermitage with the Rudanovsky collection.
Rudanovsky collected Sèvres porcelain alongside paintings, drawings, glass and miniatures, and the Blue Service is one of the most important groups in his collection.
The tray is therefore a double document: of the Sèvres factory in 1788 and of a nineteenth-century Russian collector’s taste.
The Medallion
The medallion is the tray’s heart.
It is a white circle, framed by a gold ring, with a circle of roses and a single rose at the centre. The roses are painted with care: the petals are shaded, the leaves have veins, and the composition is symmetrical.
The medallion is small, and it is surrounded by a large area of blue — a hierarchy that is characteristic of the service, where the eye is drawn inward but the blue dominates.
The Cups’ Place
The cups stood on the tray around the medallion.
Their blue and white would have repeated the tray’s decoration, and their small size would have made the tray look generous. The cups and the tray were designed as a group, and they were used as a group.
In a museum, the group is dispersed; in the eighteenth century, it was a single object on a table.
Provenance
The tray carries the inventory number ZF-16268 and entered the Hermitage in 1919 from the collection of A. K. Rudanovsky.
In the Hermitage
The tray is preserved in the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg and is not on permanent display.
It is a small, elegant object, and it shows how the service worked as a system: a tray made for cups, cups made for a tray, all painted with the same blue and roses, and all designed to be used together.
