The plate is decorated in the famille rose palette with a garland of pink leaves and flowers of different species delicately painted in gold looped between triple rings which are suspended from the rim. To the center, the coat of arms of Juana Antonia Bucareli y Bean 4th Marquise of Vallehermoso, Grandee of Spain, 6th Countess of Gerena. Pieces of the service have a gold spearhead border round the edge that has worn off most of the pieces of the order.
This extensive service includes many rare forms such as a rococo soup tureen, a sauce tureen and cover in the form of Budai Heshang (in a private collection), a pierced fruit basket on a pedestal stand after a Meissen original (Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon), sugar casters (Metropolitan Museum), with other examples in the Madrid Decorative Arts museum and elsewhere.
About this service, see Rocio Diaz, Chinese Armorial for Spain, Jorge Welsh Books, London and Lisbon, November, 2010, pp. 274/281, no. 39,
This order is the only known example for the Spanish market with the arms of a lady. A letter from José Arlegui y Leon to Antonio Maria Bucareli dated from Manila on 12th July 1775 mentions this dinner service.
The Bucareli family originally came from Florence in Italy and a branch settled in Seville. The service was made for Juana Antonia Bucareli y Baeza, Ursúa y Vicentelo, who was born in Seville in 1739 and died in 1810. She became Countess of Gerena in 1774 and at her father’s death in 1782 she inherited the titles of Marquise of Vallehermoso and Viscountess of Ursúa. The coat of arms includes quarterings for the families of Bucareli, Baeza, Ursúa and Vicentelo.
Nicolas Bucareli (1714-1798), her husband, was Knight-Commander of Fradel in the Order of Santiago, a member of the Royal Maestranza of Seville Grandee of Spain, a Knight of the order of Charles III, Lieutenant-General of the Royal Armies, military and political Governor of Cadiz, and Captain General of the coast of Granada and the lesser presidios of Africa.
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