A LOUIS XVI ORMOLU-MOUNTED BLUE-JOHN URN

CIRCA 1780

Details

A LOUIS XVI ORMOLU-MOUNTED BLUE-JOHN URN
CIRCA 1780
Of campana form, flanked by lion's head handles, inscribed in red with museum accession number CMA 89.172
16½ in. (42 cm.) high

Provenance

With Kraemer & Cie, Paris.
Bequest of Severance and Greta Millikin, Cleveland, 1989.

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Lot Essay

This sumptuous vase of richly veined blue-john reflects the taste for precious hardstones among enlightened collectors in the 1780's such as the duc d'Aumont and Marie Antoinette. Blue-john, a rare fluorspar deposit from the Castleton area of Derbyshire, England, has been prized since Roman times. Blue-john was exported in the late 18th Century to France for use in luxurious objets d'art and its name is a corruption of their appellation 'bleu jaune.'

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