Tournai Incredible Battle Scene Teapot

This is a an absolutely amazing piece of porcelain made by Tournai ( probably the workshops of François Peterlinck ) in the 18th century around 1763. It is a little teapot made of softpaste porcelain and likely from a tete a tete or solitaire. It has their typical shape with their typical handle as well as finial. I could not find another example of this combination of battle scenes with the blue ground and gilding! Definitely one of the top pieces they ever made! The teapot is hand painted with a polychrome equestrian battle scene to either side - one side has four soldiers on four horses in the foreground with one wielding a sword and one a pistol. All this in a landscape surrounding. Interestingly in the background there are a lot more horsemen all painted in monochrome brown which links all these battle scene pieces since they all have that feature. The scene on the other side has four more soldiers and their horses with two having their swords drawn and one already on the ground along with his horse with a wound on his arm. A little landscape filling in the rest of the piece with the same monochrome batlle going on in the background. Some superb gilding surrounds these scenes consisting of a tooled band with tooled flowers on the outside. The blue ground hales from Chelsea where it was called Mazarin blue where it was first used during the gold anchor period and they in turn got the idea from Vincennes / Sevres where it was called bleu lapis. If I had to take a guess in terms of who painted it I would say that it was Henri-Joseph Duvivier and possibly Michel-Joseph Duvivier for the gilding. The first being a cousin and the later an older brother to the more famous Fidelle Duvivier. They both came from Chelsea in England which explains the decoration style which also links back to Sevres / Chelsea just like the blue color. The rest of the teapot has some gold trim around the top and bottom and gilding to the handle and around the spout bottom. The lid has the same blue color with their typical acorn finial with some nice gilding to it and two gold flowers to the top. Nice to have the original lid likely because it was attached with a little chain to the handle. The pot and lid are in great condition with a very neat break where the spout attaches to the main body likely because of some sort of firing flaw or hairline. I left it be but a good restorer could easily make this disappear completely! A very minor touch of gold wear mainly around the edge of the lid and the occasional small use mark but this is as good as they come and you won't find another one that is for sure! An extremely rare piece! The piece is not marked except for an incised L4 underneath as shown but it was definitely made by them during this period. The handful (if that) of known battle scene pieces by them can be found in the Victoria and Albert museum, as well as the Royal Museum of Mariemont though none are as nice as this piece! The subjects shown in the cavalry battle scenes were probably inspired by engravings made from the paintings of the French 17th century artist Adam Frans van der Meulen. The pot with the lid in place is 3.75 inches tall, 5.875 inches from handle to spout tip and 3.5 inches in diameter. It does not come better than this piece when talking about Tournai! Please email me for more information or other pictures.