DATE LETTER T FOR 1772 TO THE CUP, FEATHERY BLUE INTERLACED L'S TO BOTH PIECES, THE FLAMBOYANT MARK THE 'SIGNATURE' OF ARMAND L'ÂINÉ

Louis-Denis Armand, recorded at Vincennes and Sèvres 1745-1788 as a painter of birds, animals, landscapes and figures, is now recognized as the pre-eminent painter of birds previously known only through his mark as 'The Crescent Painter'. Armand's birds were drawn from imagination, rather than based on ornithological drawings and engravings. For this reason, the images have an immediacy often lacking in more exact renderings, the birds interacting with each other. Indeed, it is all too easy to assign anthropomorphic identities to them. Such is the case with the two birds on the present cup, perched beside each other on a branch whispering gossipy tidbits in each other's ears.