Getty Museum

Covered Cup and Saucer (gobelet à lait et soucoupe, deuxième grandeur)

Date

about 1760–1765

Medium

Soft-paste porcelain, camaïeu rose enamel decoration, and gilding

Culture

French

Department

Decorative Arts

Institution

Getty Museum

This small covered cup with its deep saucer was designed to serve warm milk at breakfast. A military trophy decorates the center of the saucer, while specific battle scenes fill the reserves. The depicted battles took place between Prussia and Saxony in 1756 and 1757, at the beginning of the Seven Years' War. Frederick the Great of Prussia invaded Saxony in August 1756, occupying the capital of Dresden. French troops were never deployed in this part of Europe, so the decoration could have been of little interest to a French buyer. As only one other similar example (an *écuelle*) survives, scholars assume that a German client, wishing to commemorate either the taking of Dresden by the Prussians or its recapture by the Saxons, specifically commissioned this cup and saucer and the *écuelle*.

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