A small Tournai coffee can from the Duc d'Orleans service, c.1787-92, the can of gobelet litron form

A small Tournai coffee can from the Duc d'Orleans service, c.1787-92, the can of gobelet litron form of the fourth size, painted probably by J G J Mayer with a blue jay (le geai bleu), and with small panels of butterflies and other insects reserved on a rich blue ground with gilt borders, titled in black to the base, 4.5cm high.

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. Two different shapes of cup were made for this service, based on all four sizes of the Sèvres gobelet litron, this being the smallest. 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, including two cans of this size.