Directoire Tête-à-tête Service - Grisaille Decorated Porcelain - Laeken Brussels Manufactory

An elegant tête-à-tête service in fine, translucent white porcelain, comprising two liter cups and saucers, as well as a small ewer.
Each piece bears the handwritten gold mark “IR,” attributing the set to the Laeken/Brussels manufactory, active during the Consulate and the First Empire.
The exquisitely detailed decoration is executed in light, nuanced grisaille, with colored flesh tones and gold highlights. The cups feature a continuous scene of three young women draped in classical style, standing or seated on classical chairs.
The ewer presents two different scenes, each with two figures in conversation, in the same elegant style.
The saucers are adorned with crossed torches and laurel wreaths, emblematic motifs of the Neoclassical Directoire-Empire style.
The hazy rendering of shadows and flames, the delicacy of the drapery, and the high quality of the highlights demonstrate first-rate craftsmanship.

Dimensions:
Ewer: 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.
Note : the bottom of a cup shows small cracks, and the ewer shows a very slight vertical linear striation that suggests an old re-glazing. See close-up  photo of the ewer body. 

A rare and sought-after service, representative of the finest Neoclassical productions of the period 1795–1810, and remarkably well preserved.

The handwritten mark IR (for Imperial Royal) appears on certains fine porcelains produced in Brussels Laeken between the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Inherited from the administrative practices of the Austrian Low Countries, it continued to be used by the royal workshops under the Consulate and the First Empire, particularly on hand-decorated luxury pieces. This mark is found on the most refined porcelains of the period 1795-1810, known for their exquisely fine grisaille decorations.