.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
These eye-catching mounted vases embody the austere, architectural style of the first wave of neo-classicism of the 1760s known as the goût grec. The new forms and styles of the goût grec were largely disseminated by influential designers and ornemanistes such as Jean-Charles Delafosse (1734-1791) and Jean-Louis Prieur (1732-1795), alongside architects such as Jean-François de Neufforge (1714-1791) and Victor Louis (1731-1807).The first experimental items of furniture in the goût grec were conceived and produced as early as around 1754-1756 with the celebrated bureau plat executed for the amateur connoisseur Ange-Laurent Lalive de Jully, probably by Joseph Baumhauer (d. 1772) and Philippe Caffiéri (1714-1774) to the designs of Louis-Joseph Le Lorrain (1714-1759), now in the Musée Condé at Chantilly.
The new avant garde classical style was also enthusiastically adopted at the Sèvres porcelain factory, under the direction of the brilliant Italian-born designer Jean-Claude Chambellan Duplessis (circa 1695-1774) and later his son Jean-Claude-Thomas-Chambellan (1730-1783). Some of the most dazzling and inventive designs in this new idiom were produced at Sèvres, for instance a vase in the British Royal Collection with a similar combination of angular handles and leaf swags which relates to handles featured on plate 312 of Neufforge’s Recueil d’architecture (published in 9 volumes from 1757- 1772, see S. Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism in France, London, 1974, fig. 275 and p. 371).
Vases produced at Sèvres specifically to be mounted in gilt-bronze were often paired with models of mounts which were frequently repeated, and ordered by marchand-merciers such as Simon-Philippe Poirier and Dominique Daguerre who each exercised a monopoly on vases à monter from Sèvres . However the mounts on these vases, which combine a striking goût grec form with a hint of chinoiserie whimsy, for instance in the pagoda-form lids, are apparently unique, suggesting they may have been a special commission.
The new avant garde classical style was also enthusiastically adopted at the Sèvres porcelain factory, under the direction of the brilliant Italian-born designer Jean-Claude Chambellan Duplessis (circa 1695-1774) and later his son Jean-Claude-Thomas-Chambellan (1730-1783). Some of the most dazzling and inventive designs in this new idiom were produced at Sèvres, for instance a vase in the British Royal Collection with a similar combination of angular handles and leaf swags which relates to handles featured on plate 312 of Neufforge’s Recueil d’architecture (published in 9 volumes from 1757- 1772, see S. Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism in France, London, 1974, fig. 275 and p. 371).
Vases produced at Sèvres specifically to be mounted in gilt-bronze were often paired with models of mounts which were frequently repeated, and ordered by marchand-merciers such as Simon-Philippe Poirier and Dominique Daguerre who each exercised a monopoly on vases à monter from Sèvres . However the mounts on these vases, which combine a striking goût grec form with a hint of chinoiserie whimsy, for instance in the pagoda-form lids, are apparently unique, suggesting they may have been a special commission.