Rare Sèvres Chateau De Neuilly Egg Cup 1840 Louis-Philippe Sèvres Museum Quality For Sale

Rare antique Sèvres porcelain egg cup, dated 1840, bearing the Château de Neuilly mark and associated with the service made for King Louis-Philippe at the Château de Neuilly.A particularly charming example of 19th-century Sèvres porcelain, this egg cup has a beautifully shaped, footed form decorated with a colorful band of naturalistic flowers, including yellow, pink, orange and blue blossoms with green foliage. The floral decoration is complemented by delicate gilt ornament, including a scrolling foliate frieze around the body, with gilded borders to the rim, foot and base.The underside bears the red Château de Neuilly mark, together with the gilt-stamped SÈVRES 1840 mark, as shown in the photographs. The underside also retains an incised marking, of which I can clearly make out “11” followed by a number, a dash, and “3.” It may possibly relate to a date or production notation, perhaps November 3rd, although I would leave that interpretation open.The Château de Neuilly mark is especially interesting. The Sèvres service made for Louis-Philippe at Neuilly was commissioned in December 1835 and was intended for use at the château, the private residence of the royal family. Contemporary and later records describe this service as having a white ground with floral bands, friezes and gilt rosettes. Pieces from the service are now quite scarce, in part because the Château de Neuilly was looted and burned during the Revolution of 1848. The form itself is well documented in major museum collections. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has Sèvres porcelain from the same period, including an 1840 hard-paste porcelain teacup, while other museum collections document Sèvres tablewares made for the royal residences during the Louis-Philippe period. The Walters Art Museum, for example, records a Sèvres service from 1841–45 made for use by the King and his family at the Château de Compiègne, with incised marks identifying the potters who worked on the pieces.Interestingly, recent French sale records also document Sèvres egg cups from the Louis-Philippe period, including an 1847 example measuring approximately 6 cm high and 4.5 cm in diameter, showing that these small pieces formed part of the refined table services produced by Sèvres during the period.Dimensions: approximately 6.5 cm (2 9/16 in.) high, with an opening of approximately 4.5 cm (1 3/4 in.).Condition: Excellent antique condition. The porcelain is very well preserved, with the decoration and gilding remaining remarkably fresh for an object of this age. Please examine all photographs carefully, as they form an important part of the description.A lovely and relatively rare piece of Louis-Philippe-period Sèvres porcelain, particularly appealing to collectors of Sèvres, French royal porcelain, and objects associated with the historic royal residences of the July Monarchy.Please see the photographs for the marks, decoration and condition.