A PAIR OF 19TH CENTURY FRENCH SEVRES STYLE PORCELAIN PORTRAITS OF PRINCESS DE LAMBALLE AND MADAME DE MONTESSON, each panel depicting the 18th century ladies in fine silks and wearing wigs, on a white ground flanked by bleu de roi border and gilt highlights, inscribed in gilt lettering below 'LAMBALLE' and 'Mlse de MONTESSON', on velvet mounts within gilt and glazed oval frames,

the panels 29cm, the frames 45cm high (2)

This charming pair of portrait plaques depict elegant noblewomen from pre-revolutionary France, the first, Marie Thérèse Louise of Savoy, Princesse de Lamballe, was an attendant of Queen Marie Antoinette but was killed in a massacre in 1792 during the French Revolution. The second, Charlotte-Jeanne Béraud de La Haye de Riou (1738-1806) was a mistress to Louis Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans and later became his wife. Louis XV would not allow her to become the Duchess as he disapproved of their relationship due in part to the fact that she had been an actress and appeared in several plays.