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Lot Essay
This superb pair of vases reflects the taste for the mounting of exotic Oriental porcelains with finely crafted Parisian gilt bronzes promoted by the marchands-merciers of Paris, such as Thomas-Joachim-Hébert and Lazare Duvaux.
The marchands-merciers held a monopoly on the import of precious goods from the East such as lacquers and porcelains, but were forbidden by the guild system from actually creating any finished product. They therefore presided over an extraordinary array of specialized artisans who produced their innovative goods which were always at the forefront of fashion, ranging from the first pieces of furniture to be mounted with lacquer panels in the 1730s, to the exquisite porcelain-mounted pieces created in the 1770s and 1780s.
Lazare Duvaux in particular promoted the fashion for mounting Chinese and Japanese porcelain with gilt bronzes in the 1740s and 1750s, and was one of the principal suppliers of mounted porcelains to Madame de Pompadour.
Similarly elegant and elongated mounts can be found on a pair of Chinese Imari vases, illustrated in P. Kjellberg, objets montés du Moyen âge à nos jours, Paris, 2000, pg. 60 and also on blue lacquered vases in the Musée Nissim de Camondo, Paris, op.cit, p. 63.
The marchands-merciers held a monopoly on the import of precious goods from the East such as lacquers and porcelains, but were forbidden by the guild system from actually creating any finished product. They therefore presided over an extraordinary array of specialized artisans who produced their innovative goods which were always at the forefront of fashion, ranging from the first pieces of furniture to be mounted with lacquer panels in the 1730s, to the exquisite porcelain-mounted pieces created in the 1770s and 1780s.
Lazare Duvaux in particular promoted the fashion for mounting Chinese and Japanese porcelain with gilt bronzes in the 1740s and 1750s, and was one of the principal suppliers of mounted porcelains to Madame de Pompadour.
Similarly elegant and elongated mounts can be found on a pair of Chinese Imari vases, illustrated in P. Kjellberg, objets montés du Moyen âge à nos jours, Paris, 2000, pg. 60 and also on blue lacquered vases in the Musée Nissim de Camondo, Paris, op.cit, p. 63.