Partial coffee service (Déjeuner Culture et Récolte du cacao”) 1836 Sèvres Manufactory French The interest in depicting foreign and exotic locations on Sèvres porcelain tea and dinner services begins in the earliest years of the nineteenth century, propelled in part by French Emperor Napoléon I’s (1769-1821) expedition to Egypt in 1798-99. The fascination with Egypt was both profound and long lasting, and some of the factory’s most inventive work is found on services that utilize Egyptian motifs in both two and three dimensions.[1 The curiosity about foreign lands extended far beyond Egypt, however, and the taste for depictions of exotic places lasted into the 1840s.[2 The popularity of this type of subject matter coincided with a growing interest in creating thematic programs for multi-piece services.[3 In a letter from 1834, Alexandre Brongniart (French, 1770-1847), director of the Sèvres factory, stated his belief in the importance of linking sets of objects together by theme, a