A new biscuit for Versailles

4/8/25 - Acquisition - Versailles, Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon - At the latest edition of TEFAF in Maastricht, an elegant biscuit porcelain figure from Sèvres caught everyone’s eye at the Michele Beiny booth, where it was soon discreetly marked with a red dot (ill. 1). The Château de Versailles, quietly acting behind the scenes, could not miss such an acquisition, which was made possible thanks to the generous patronage of Hubert and Mireille Goldschmidt, via the American Friends of Versailles. Highly attractive, this new Hebe was mounted on a graceful pedestal with a gilt bronze base that complements it perfectly.

As stated by the Château de Versailles, these two fine porcelain objects were recently reunited by another dealer, John Whitehead, who acquired them one after the other at two auctions — one in Brussels in November 2022, and the other in Madrid in April 2024, where — an amusing detail — the pedestal had been converted into a lamp! He was able to identify not only this figure personifying Youth (ill. 2 and 3) but also to reassemble the pairing of the two elements. This combination is listed among King Louis XVI’s purchases at the 1787–1788 winter exhibition-sale: a “Hébé” valued at 120 livres, followed by a “bas-relief pedestal for” at 360 livres — an invaluable mention indicating that the two were indeed meant to go together. As noted in the excellent catalogue for the exhibition “La Manufacture des Lumières,” held in Sèvres ten years ago (see the article), several models of Hebe were designed and produced at…