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Cup and Saucer

Decorative Arts and Design

This cup and saucer were made for an elite market in emulation of famous royal dinner services. In 1807 Napoleon I gave the Russian czar a spectacular Egyptian-style dinner service made at Sëvres. A similar set was commissioned for Napoleon's empress, Josephine, as part of her divorce settlement in 1809. Josephine rejected it, however, and in 1818 Louis XVIII gave it to the Duke of Wellington. The almost whimsical vocabulary of pseudo-Egyptian hieroglyphs on the objects seen here was inspired freely by illustrations of actual inscriptions published at the time.

MEDIUM Porcelain
DATES ca. 1830
DIMENSIONS cup: 2 7/8 x 4 in. (7.3 x 10.2 cm); saucer: 1 5/8 x 6 in. (4.1 x 15.2 cm)  (show scale)
ACCESSION NUMBER X628.1a-b
CREDIT LINE Brooklyn Museum Collection
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Derby Porcelain Factory (1750–present). Cup and Saucer, ca. 1830. Porcelain, cup: 2 7/8 x 4 in. (7.3 x 10.2 cm);. Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum Collection, X628.1a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, X628.1a_view1_bw.jpg)
IMAGE overall, X628.1a_view1_bw.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
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Derby Porcelain Factory (1750–present). <em>Cup and Saucer</em>, ca. 1830. Porcelain, cup:  2 7/8 x 4 in.  (7.3 x 10.2 cm);. Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum Collection, X628.1a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, X628.1a_view1_bw.jpg)