Barbel Coffee Service Limoges Cmc Maureil Chapeau Charles

Coffee service in fine Limoges porcelain, early twentieth, Empire style, decorated with "barbel" in blue shades and gilded with 24 carat fine gold. Eleven pieces on piedouche, each marked "Limoges CMC France", manufacture Maureil Chapeau & Charles. A jug (28 cm), a sugar bowl (18.5 cm), a milk jug (18 cm), each carrying a cover with a perforated socket. Eight cups on piedouche and their saucers. Height of cups 8.5 cm, diameter 9.3 cm. Diameter of saucers 14.5 cm. Porcelain and decoration of great finesse of execution. This service is in superb condition and its gilding is intact. Very popular under Louis XVI, this type of decoration takes its name from the barbel, a word that used to designate the blueberry that grew in the fields, sometimes in the middle of the wheat. This is an ornament that was found on the services of Marie-Antoinette.