Miniature Tea Set

Although its Rococo-style decoration recalls the tastes of the previous century, this miniature tête-à-tête tea service features Neoclassical shapes, including octagonal pots with angular handles “a la grecque,” in the contemporary fashion of the early nineteenth century.(1) The set was probably made at one of the numerous porcelain factories operating in Paris between 1780 and 1840. Smallscale toy ceramics from the Continent are rare, and it cannot be certain whether the present service was intended for the use of children or as a novelty for adults.(2)
Catalogue entry from: Elizabeth Sullivan. The Robert Lehman Collection. Decorative Arts, Vol. XV. Wolfram Koeppe, et al. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press, 2012, p. 178.

NOTES:
1. A full-size Paris porcelain dinner service of nearly identical design and decoration was sold at auction in New Orleans in 2003 (sale, Neal Auction Company, New Orleans, 7 June 2003, lot 222).
2. See Pardue, Rick. Ceramics for Children, 1650 – 1835. Old Salem Toy Museum Series. Winston-Salem, N.C., 2008, pp. 15 – 17.

Marking: Mark: unidentified incised mark on teapot (illegible).

[James Robinson, New York.]