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Lot Essay
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
A. Troude, Choix de Modéles de la Manufacture Nationale de Porcelaine de Sèvres, appartenant au Musée Céramique, Paris, 1897, planche 123 (for the plaster model, titled vase oeuf de Louis XVI garni).
E. Bourgeois, Le Biscuit de Sèvres au XVIII Siècle, vol. I, Paris, 1909, p. 159 (for the biscuit portrait medallion of the king).
R. Savill, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, London, 1988, vol. I, cat. no. 320 (vase 'Casoulette Bachelier' similarly gilt by Le Guay); vol. III, pp. 1045-1046 (a biography of the gilder Le Guay).
Geoffrey de Bellaigue, French Porcelain in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, London, 2009, vol. 1, cat. nos. 558, 59, 60, 48 (three vases 'medaillon du roi', egg-shaped and applied with portrait medallions of the French king and a vase 'pot pourri Mercure' applied with biscuit portrait medallions of Louis XV and Empress Maria Theresa of Austria).
The present pair of vases would appear to be the only such pair extant. Titled in the 19th century by Albert Troude vase oeuf Louis XVI garni (fig. 1), the plaster model is retained at the factory, its socle molded with basketweave, as is that on a pair of vases 'oeufs' in the Getty Museum (86.DE.520.1-2).
Other than the factory's interlaced L's mark, the only mark on the present pair is for the gilder Etienne-Henry Le Guay, (pre 1719/20 - circa 1799), whose talent is responsible for the visual magic found on Sèvres vases when bleu nouveau, white and tooled gilding are artfully combined. Born nearby in the town of Saint Cloud, Le Guay was at Vincennes intermittently between 1742 and 1751, employed as a painter in monochrome blue and enamel colors, his absences due to his parallel military career. He returned to the factory full-time in 1751, and by 1753 was being paid as a gilder in which position he continued until 1796. He died a few years later.
Le Guay's mark of a script LG rarely appears before 1773, after which it appears frequently, his name associated with royal commissions such as the elaborate dinner and dessert service made for Catherine the Great of Russia and the service de toilette made for the comtesse du Nord, a pseudonym for her daughter-in-law. To his hand is also due the gilding on the vase 'casoulette Bachelier' in The Wallace Collection, so similar to that on the present vases with birds in flight above cornucopia (R. Savill, vol. I, no. C304).
Simon-Louis Boizot (1743-1809) was almost certainly responsible for both royal portrait medallions. Active outside the factory as a sculptor and academician, and winner of the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1762, he provided the factory with many models for biscuit figures and groups, serving as director of the sculpture studio between 1773 and 1780. That of the king is well known in the literature; that of the queen less so and therefore a more speculative attribution. The image as a detached portrait with no back plate is in the collection of the British Museum (1988.1011.2).
Given their manufacturing date of 1774, it is logical that the present pair of vases was made to commemorate the coronation of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette as king and queen of France. Given also that these vases would appear to be the only pair of this form and decoration extant, it is likely that they were either a present to the French monarch or presented by him as a diplomatic gift. Such is the case with an egg-shaped green-ground vase medaillon du roi now in the Wallace Collection. Also applied on one side with a portrait medallion, here of Louis XV, and fitted on the other with a clock movement, it may originally have been part of a garniture of three vases presented by the French king to Christian VII of Denmark. Three other vases of this shape are known, each gilt with oeil-de-perdrix decoration on a bleu nouveau ground, each featuring a biscuit portrait plaque of Louis XV, and each in the collection of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. One was acquired circa 1812 by George IV; it is not known when and how the other two entered the collection. Continuing this trend of biscuit portrait vases as diplomatic gifts is the vase 'pot pourri Mercure' also in the royal collection (de Bellaigue, no. 48), applied with royal and imperial portraits of Louis XV and Maria Theresa.
Further research may reveal evidence to clarify whether the present pair of vases are, indeed, royal. That they are of sublime quality, however, is unquestionable.
A. Troude, Choix de Modéles de la Manufacture Nationale de Porcelaine de Sèvres, appartenant au Musée Céramique, Paris, 1897, planche 123 (for the plaster model, titled vase oeuf de Louis XVI garni).
E. Bourgeois, Le Biscuit de Sèvres au XVIII Siècle, vol. I, Paris, 1909, p. 159 (for the biscuit portrait medallion of the king).
R. Savill, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, London, 1988, vol. I, cat. no. 320 (vase 'Casoulette Bachelier' similarly gilt by Le Guay); vol. III, pp. 1045-1046 (a biography of the gilder Le Guay).
Geoffrey de Bellaigue, French Porcelain in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, London, 2009, vol. 1, cat. nos. 558, 59, 60, 48 (three vases 'medaillon du roi', egg-shaped and applied with portrait medallions of the French king and a vase 'pot pourri Mercure' applied with biscuit portrait medallions of Louis XV and Empress Maria Theresa of Austria).
The present pair of vases would appear to be the only such pair extant. Titled in the 19th century by Albert Troude vase oeuf Louis XVI garni (fig. 1), the plaster model is retained at the factory, its socle molded with basketweave, as is that on a pair of vases 'oeufs' in the Getty Museum (86.DE.520.1-2).
Other than the factory's interlaced L's mark, the only mark on the present pair is for the gilder Etienne-Henry Le Guay, (pre 1719/20 - circa 1799), whose talent is responsible for the visual magic found on Sèvres vases when bleu nouveau, white and tooled gilding are artfully combined. Born nearby in the town of Saint Cloud, Le Guay was at Vincennes intermittently between 1742 and 1751, employed as a painter in monochrome blue and enamel colors, his absences due to his parallel military career. He returned to the factory full-time in 1751, and by 1753 was being paid as a gilder in which position he continued until 1796. He died a few years later.
Le Guay's mark of a script LG rarely appears before 1773, after which it appears frequently, his name associated with royal commissions such as the elaborate dinner and dessert service made for Catherine the Great of Russia and the service de toilette made for the comtesse du Nord, a pseudonym for her daughter-in-law. To his hand is also due the gilding on the vase 'casoulette Bachelier' in The Wallace Collection, so similar to that on the present vases with birds in flight above cornucopia (R. Savill, vol. I, no. C304).
Simon-Louis Boizot (1743-1809) was almost certainly responsible for both royal portrait medallions. Active outside the factory as a sculptor and academician, and winner of the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1762, he provided the factory with many models for biscuit figures and groups, serving as director of the sculpture studio between 1773 and 1780. That of the king is well known in the literature; that of the queen less so and therefore a more speculative attribution. The image as a detached portrait with no back plate is in the collection of the British Museum (1988.1011.2).
Given their manufacturing date of 1774, it is logical that the present pair of vases was made to commemorate the coronation of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette as king and queen of France. Given also that these vases would appear to be the only pair of this form and decoration extant, it is likely that they were either a present to the French monarch or presented by him as a diplomatic gift. Such is the case with an egg-shaped green-ground vase medaillon du roi now in the Wallace Collection. Also applied on one side with a portrait medallion, here of Louis XV, and fitted on the other with a clock movement, it may originally have been part of a garniture of three vases presented by the French king to Christian VII of Denmark. Three other vases of this shape are known, each gilt with oeil-de-perdrix decoration on a bleu nouveau ground, each featuring a biscuit portrait plaque of Louis XV, and each in the collection of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. One was acquired circa 1812 by George IV; it is not known when and how the other two entered the collection. Continuing this trend of biscuit portrait vases as diplomatic gifts is the vase 'pot pourri Mercure' also in the royal collection (de Bellaigue, no. 48), applied with royal and imperial portraits of Louis XV and Maria Theresa.
Further research may reveal evidence to clarify whether the present pair of vases are, indeed, royal. That they are of sublime quality, however, is unquestionable.