Once established at Sèvres under direct royal patronage, the principal efforts of the staff were directed to the designing and the execution of elaborate dinner-services, destined to be presented in turn to the various crowned heads of Europe. As early as 1754 a service was made for Maria Theresa, _la Reine-Impératrice_. In 1758 a service with a green ground and figures, flowers, and birds in cartels was commanded by Louis XV. for presentation to the King of Denmark; in 1760 a _service de table_ of two hundred and eighty-one pieces is presented to the Elector-Palatine Karl Theodor, the porcelain enthusiast of Frankenthal. In 1764, and again in 1772 and 1779, the _Ministre d’État_ Bertin forwarded to the Chinese Emperor Kien-lung, through the medium of the Jesuit missionaries, presents of Sèvres porcelain.[188] In 1768 and 1769 a further grand _service de table, fond lapis caillouté_[189] is presented to the Danish king; in 1775 it is the turn of a Spanish princess, and in 1777 of the emperor. In 1778 the king sends to the Sultan of Morocco a tea-service, and at the same time presents other pieces of china to the Moorish ambassador. In the same year the Empress Catherine ordered at Sèvres the famous service of seven hundred and forty-four pieces, _bleu céleste_ (_i.e._ turquoise) ground, decorated with _camées incrustés_. The flowers in this set were painted by Taillandier, and the gilding executed by Vincent and Le Guay. There is a plate from this service at South Kensington: on the centre the letter E, formed of minute flowers, and the Roman numeral II, stand for Ekaterina the Second. To this set belong also the three large _brûle-parfums_ vases at Hertford House, and there are other pieces in private hands.[190] The empress disputed the price (328,188 livres) demanded for the service, and a long diplomatic correspondence on the point has been preserved. M. Davillier gives some details of eight other royal services made between this time and the end of the century, among them one with green ground, for Prince Henry of Prussia (1784), of which [Illustration: _PLATE XXXVIII._ SÈVRES] several of the pieces were jewelled (_ornées d’émaux_), and in 1788 a _grand service de table_ with vases, cups, pictures, and busts sent to Tippoo Saib, Sultan of Mysore. It is usual to distinguish the different services, _cabarets_ or _garnitures_, by the colour of the ground which is maintained throughout the set. Thus we find the _fond lapis_ mentioned above and the _fond vert_, a peculiar shade of green very much admired at the time and often repeated in the lacquered furniture and even in the panels of a whole apartment.