The fashionable hobby of collecting prints or miniature versions of series of self-portraits of artists also translated into porcelain decoration in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The porcelain painters worked from engravings acquired by the Sèvres factory and each artist is identified on the base of each piece. The tray has recently been identified as depicting a copy of Louis Ducis's L'Origine de la Peinture, illustrating the moment the Ancient Greek maid Dibutades traces her lover's profile on the wall to keep as a record, thus inventing painting.

No. 62