![img_13-4.jpg](https://gazette-eu-west2.azureedge.net/media/28904/img_13-4.jpg?width=750&height=500&mode=max&updated=05%2f20%2f2018+15%3a23%3a37)
Based on a c.1809-14 miniature by Ferdinand Paul Louis Quajila, the 8½ x 5½in (21.5 x 14cm) plaque, was signed M. fre de Dihl a Paris – one of the high-quality hard-paste pieces created by the factory set up in Paris in 1781 by Christophe Dihl (1752-1830).
Provenanced, thanks to a 19th century paper label, to a Christie’s sale in 1869, the plaque in an ebonised frame with gilt metal inner slip was pitched at £5000-7000 at the April 10 sale and sold at £7200.
Dihl enjoyed a degree of royal custom and survived the Revolution but, having staved off bankruptcy by taking huge loans in 1807 and 1809, he closed the factory in 1828 and died a ruined man in 1830.