The Louis XVI Service

The Sèvres porcelain in the Royal Collection ranks as the finest in the world. This volume, the first of a three-volume catalogue of the Sèvres belonging to Her Majesty, The Queen, is devoted exclusively to the Louis XVI service. The service was commissioned by Louis XVI in 1783. It was still only half-completed at the time of the King's execution ten years later. The bulk of the service was acquired by George IV in 1811 and thus passed into the Royal Collection, housed at Windsor Castle. The Louis XVI service was the most expensive service of soft-paste porcelain ever produced at Sèvres in the eighteenth century. Considering its exceptional character, it has been possible to reconstitute the history of its manufacture and to establish the precise contributions of the artists involved. A major part of the catalogue is devoted to the identification of the sources which served as models for the scenes drawn from antiquity and mythology reproduced in the reserves.