The plate is moulded after a silver form and decorated in the famille rose palette, with floral sprays on the rim. At the centre are the impaled arms of Jean-Charles-Henri, Baron van Dam d’Audignies, and Marie-Philippine de Maulde de la Deuze, Lady of Thiant, supported by two lions Or and surmounted by a coronet with five fleurons, all set upon a rococo cartouche.
An identical plate is in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no. AK-NM-13425 (formerly in the J. G. A. N. de Vries collection, 1925). See Jan van Campen, Supplement to Chinese Ceramics in the Collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: The Ming and Qing Dynasties, in collaboration with Christiaan J. A. Jörg, 1997.
See also Henry Maertens de Noordhout, Porcelaines chinoises « Compagnie des Indes » décorées d’armoiries belges, p. 86, for a tureen probably from the collection of Alberto Pinto (sold at Christie’s Paris, Collection Alberto Pinto, 12–14 September 2017, lot 338).
This service is further illustrated by a tureen and an oblong dish in Nicole de Bisscop, Séductions chinoises, p. 211, no. 6.53.
The arms are those of Colonel Jean-Charles-Henri, Baron van Dam d’Audignies, and of Marie-Philippine de Maulde de la Deuze, Lady of Thiant. Charles-Henri-Adrien van Dam, Baron d’Audignies, was a member of the Order of Nobility of French Hainaut and served as an infantry colonel. He was born in 1717 and died at Audignies in 1781. In 1764, he married at Cerfontaine Marie-Philippine-Catherine-Josèphe de Maulde, Lady of La Deuze of Thiant and of Bervoir, who died in 1791. The couple had no issue.
The van Dam family is of Dutch origin, with a branch established in the Spanish Netherlands from the sixteenth century onwards. This branch was particularly distinguished in Hainaut and was predominantly a military family, serving chiefly under His Imperial and Royal Majesty, notably within the Regiment of the Walloon Guards. The five brothers—Gérard, Nicolas, Philippe, Théodore and Pierre—were ennobled in 1416 by Sigismund I, King of the Romans and Duke of Luxembourg, with confirmation, as required, by the King of Spain in 1598.
These pieces form part of a table service decorated in the famille rose palette, produced during the Qianlong period, circa 1765. The distinctive form of the tureens—of which four examples are recorded within this service—derives from models employed at Delft and Höchst. The cavetto is decorated with a chain motif.
Comparable services, bearing the arms of Dutch and German families, are known and date to the period 1763–1767.
