Teapot

England

About 1775

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Delicate, thin medallion of white jasper with dark blue jasper dip and white relief decoration with the scene of Poor Maria.
Dish, David Puxley, Wedgwood, glazed stoneware
Oval medallion with profile portrait of Jean-Francois Marmontel (1723-1799), French writer and dramatist, born in the Limousin region (noe Haute Vienne). Educated at the Jesuit college at Mauriac. Marmontel became a teacher of philosophy at the Bernardine seminary at Toulouse. He attracted the notice of Voltaire, who advised him to go to Paris where he arrived in 1745. A tragedy produced in 1747 at once gave him celebrity. An introduction to Madame de Pompadour brought him the place of secretary to her brother, the Marquis de Marigny. Marmontel frequented the salon of Madame Geoffrin, and after the death of his friend, Boissy, he was given the Mercure de France. After a great deal of opposition Marmontel was elected to the Academy in 1763, and in 1783 was appointed Secretary and historiographer of France. He retired to Normandy at the outbreak of the revolution, dying there in 1799. This model comes from an unsigned engraving dated 1765
Plaque based on Raphael's painting of the Sistine Madonna