Produced as two identical dessert services: the first was completed and presented in 1811 to Cardinal Fesch on the occasion of the baptism of the King of Rome (Napoléon II, son of Napoléon I and Marie-Louise). Referred to as the ‘Service à Camées’, it consisted of 82 pieces. The second service, was produced between 1812 and 1817, and was named after its principal source of decoration: the Iconographique ancienne ou recueil des portraits authentique des empereurs, rois et hommes illustres de l’Antiquité by Ennio Quirino Visconti (1751-1818). Originally conceived as a dinner and dessert service, the estimated expense of such an undertaking reduced the final number of pieces produced to 122 dessert wares, of which 72 were cameo-decorated plates. The service was entered into the factory’s salesroom register on May19th, 1817 but was displayed In the Sèvres annual exhibition at the Louvre in January of 1818, and it was not until September of 1819 that the service actually left the factory’s stock, when it was delivered to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for presentation to Pope Pius VII. It is not known when, how or why the ‘Service Iconographique Grec’ left the papal collections, but by 1888 over half of the service had been transported to Philadelphia and was being offered for sale at the Walnut Street shop of James B. Pooley.
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Service iconographique français (French Iconographic Service) was commissioned under Louis XVIII, and delivered to his brother and successor Charles X at the Grand Trianon Palace on November 24, 1824. This dessert service initially included 90 plates, 2 sugar bowls, 24 mounted plates and 16 compotiers in four different shapes. It is likely that Charles X took it with him into exile in England after 1830, which may explain the appearance on the British art market of a large number of pieces from this service. The plates are decorated with portraits of illustrious men of the 17th and 18th centuries, whether military, ministers, scientists or artists. These portraits are mostly taken from engravings after painted portraits. The name and dates of the person depicted are inscribed on the back of the plates, making them easy to identify.
