Directoire Tête-à-tête Service - Grisaille Decorated Porcelain - Darte Manufactory

Parisian porcelain coffee service.
Directoire to Empire period (circa 1795–1815)
Attributed to the Darte Frères luxury porcelain manufactory.

A very elegant coffee service in extremely fine white hard-paste porcelain, richly decorated with iconography, attributable to a leading private Parisian manufactory:
Darte Frères, Directoire, Consulate, or Empire period.
The set is distinguished by its rich, hand-painted antique-style decoration on all sides, rendered in grisaille and enhanced with pinkish hues to express the subtle flesh tones of the female figures.

The service includes:
*A covered coffee pot with a spout
Gilded
*Two Litre Cups
*Two Richly Decorated Saucers

The saucers feature a particularly refined design:
Finely drawn laurel wreaths, interrupted by two pairs of crossed torches ablaze. The flames and smoke are rendered with a very subtle, vaporous technique, demonstrating the hand of a highly skilled painter.

The cups are decorated with allegorical scenes in the classical style:
On one, a winged Psyche, a figure of the soul, is depicted with grace and lightness.
On the other, a young woman in classical style contemplates herself in a Roman mirror, a scene alluding to self-knowledge.

The coffee pot features two central scenes in the classical style, with draped young women in conversation, in a style directly inspired by the late 18th-century Neoclassical engravings.

Technique and Quality
*Hard-coated, white porcelain, very pure, perfectly vitrified
*Finely nuanced grisaille decoration *Subtle flesh tones highlighted
*Fine gold gilding
*Decoration on all sides, on all pieces.

Mark
The pieces, except for the saucers, are signed under the base with the monogram “IR” in capital letters, finely painted in gold.
This is the signature of the painter-decorator, or the patron, a common practice in Parisian luxury workshops during the Empire period.

Dating
Directoire/Empire period, circa 1795–1815

Dimensions
• Teapot: height 9 cm;
Total width from handle to spout: 14 cm • Cups: Height 5.5 cm
• Saucers: Diameter 11.5 cm

Very good overall condition, without chips, cracks, or crazing.
The decoration is very fresh, with no fading.
The gilding is very well preserved.
Note a few short hairlines on the bottom of one cup, and a very slight vertical linear streak on the ewer, shown in a close-up photo.