A Tournai saucer from the service of the Duc d'Orleans, c.1787-92, painted possibly by J G J Mayer

A Tournai saucer from the service of the Duc d'Orleans, c.1787-92, painted possibly by J G J Mayer with a sparrowhawk (l'épervier), the deep rim with three small panels of butterflies and other insects reserved on a rich blue ground with gilt foliate sprigs and oeil de perdix, titled in black to the underside, a section of the rim broken out and restuck with associated crack, 12cm.

Louis-Philippe-Joseph, Duc d'Orleans (1747-93) was a cousin of Louis XVI and based at Palais Royal in Paris. Fond of hosting expansive dinner parties, he ordered a 1593 piece dinner service from Tournai in 1787, requesting that it be decorated with bird subjects after the prints by George-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon. Not all of the service reached the Duc, possibly owing to his dubious financial situation before his death, and the dealer, Robert Fogg, acquired nearly 600 pieces - selling them to the Prince of Wales (later George IV) in 1803 and 1806. Of these, 565 survive in the Royal Collection today.