The 9½in (23cm) ‘corbeilles octogone’ is one of just a handful of known pieces of this shape and pattern.
The Louis XV service was made at Vincennes in the mid 1750s for regular use at Versailles.
The first 120 pieces, delivered at the end of 1753, debuted the rich turquoise ground colour known as bleu céleste (heavenly blue), created for the project by chemist Jean Hellot (1685-1766) as well as many new shapes designed specifically for the service by the goldsmith Jean-Claude Duplessis.
Most of the Louis XV service (ultimately numbering 1735 pieces with additions supplied by the Sèvres factory in 1771 and 1773) remains in Versailles and with the Duke of Buccleuch at Boughton House, Northamptonshire.
Vincennes bleu céleste pierced basket from the first Louis XV service, £25,000 at Chiswick Auctions.
This basket, estimated at £1000-1500, came for sale from a lady whose mother was from Northern Ireland. A similar example was sold from the collection of the Duke of Abercorn in 1995.
Prices achieved
Pieces from the services only occasionally appear for sale. A plat d’entremets sold for £95,000 at Woolley & Wallis in December 2020 while back in 2013 Surrey auction house Wellers sold a 13½in (35cm) oval dish with a scalloped edge from the service for £70,000.
More recently in May this year a shell form dish took £6000 at Wimbledon Auctions.
