Mysterious Sevres Mark--any thoughts?

I inherited this Sevres plate, and am looking to decipher the marks within the double L, and the number underneath. I know that the double letters were used to indicate dates in the 18th century, but I'm unsure exactly what the two letters in the center of the mark are. Are they small-case "L"s? They almost look like a British pound symbol. Is the cross though them a common French way of indicating a small-case "L"?
Also, what does the number 119 signify?
Many thanks!

 

Welcome to Antiquers Gray!

A picture of the front might help.

 

Thanks, of course! Here is the front:

 

It's beautiful. Wait for members to see your post and reply.

I checked out some backstamps, but I can't qualify an opinion.

When posting further photos, please choose Full Image.

You can probably edit the last photo.

 

Welcome to the forum, GrayMalkin.

 

Thank you !

 

Thanks so much--I changed them to full view.

 

Beautiful, and I love that blue.

 

Thank you for changing......beautiful plate.

 

Hello and welcome GrayMalkin - Sevres marks have been forged by many manufacturers over a long period of time. I am not qualified to say for sure that your plate is a reproduction but the fact that you cannot match your mark to the known Sevres marks is not a good sign for it being an original Sevres.
Don

 

Would a faker not use a recognised mark rather than an unrecognised one?

 

The two letters in the centre signify the date. If they are lower case f's it would be 1783. http://www.thefrenchporcelainsociety.com/about-us/marks/

The guy who runs this site will know. He bought off me the only bit of genuine Sevres Ive had. He is an expert in the area.
http://www.galerie-metairie.com/

 

Thank you so much for these suggestions, Rob! I like the idea that these are lower case "f"s. How would I contact the person you mention? I looked at the website and it seems there is a rather hefty charge for his services!

 

I did a bit more research on the "ff" possibility. Other marks from 1783 do not resemble these. The lower case "ll" is more of a possibility, I think. I used this website for examples of historical French cursive style:
https://script.byu.edu/Pages/French/en/alphabet.aspx#l

 

Not necessarily. The mark is close enough to confuse most buyers. Subtle differences between actual marks and reproduction marks are often how we determine fakes.
Don

 

Looking at the details of the painting, and the Sèvres mark, in my opinion it's a fantasy mark from the beginning of the 20th century, the word Sèvres is on the pièces of this size in the mark or just under, the decorator is not on the current Sèvres recorded initials, if the piece is 19th century you can see black small spots lightly hollow under especially in the center part and often on the upper part dissimulated in the paint by the decorator.
In 18-19th century european porcelain, the more valuable were the white ones which are the most difficult to obtain without spots, more the piece is decorated more you can found those spots under magnifying binocular.
End of the 19th century and 20th Sèvres have a mark made with a stamp, if you want I have some samples I can take a picture for the under part.
You have a very documented site on the Sèvres marks here.

 

This is super helpful, thank you so much for your attention to my query! I really appreciate you sharing your expertise.

 

Sèvres is a very interesting manufacture, I've the chance to work with a very good french expert about porcelain, and we have in Geneva a museum, the Ariana, where is a lot of documentation and examples of originals and copies or forgeryes, personally just interested as a collector by the finish called "flambé de Sèvres", a reduction of copper salts in high fire, I've seen more copies than originals in 30 years of interest.

 

This is a few years late, but as I'm thinking the plate's marks are easily understandable, I'll comment. The two marks within the crossed Ls are a pair of lower case Ls for the year 1789. The blue/gold combo on the front was very popular from circa 1789 through the revolution. The "119" are actually the lower case letters nq, signature mark for the fairly prolific painter Nicquet. Some of the underglaze burned off in the firing leaving the date Ls and the n only partially legible. My opinion: This is perfectly legitimate piece of late 18th century Sevres.

 

Hello All
Before checking the mark on a top quality porcelain such as this learn and always look at color, style and most of all quality of the painting first. This will save you a lot of time. Hope this helps.
Thank You
Kevin