CIRCA 1770-82

Extraordinary for the sculptural delicacy of its form, singular brilliance of its material and carving to rival the hardstone objects of antiquity, this vase formed part of the collections of two of the most avid and discerning hardstone connoisseurs of the 18^th century: the duc d’Aumont and King Louis XVI of France.

The vase was sold from the fabled collections of the duc d'Aumont (1709-1782) in 1782 at his legendary sale which took place from 12-21 December of that year at the hôtel d'Aumont in Paris. It was organised by the marchand-merciers Philippe François Julliot and Alexandre-Joseph Paillet and the public viewing lasted for nearly a month prior to the sale. Exceptionally for an 18th Century catalogue, line engravings were employed to illustrate the principal lots. The vase was included as lot 5, and the catalogue description reads:

'PORPHYRE VERT.

5 Un Vase oblong, forme d’Urne antique, à gorge évasée du bord, et bien évidé suivant sa forme extérieure, sur socle de granit noir et blanc ; hauteur 15 pouces, le socle 6 pouces en carré ; épaisseur, 10 lignes. Voyez la planche no. 5.

Ce morceau de belle forme d’Urne, dans le genre antique, réunit au précieux de sa matiere la perfection du travail et le poli le plus avivé, ce qui est d’un grand mérite en cette rare espece.

Paillet, pour le Roi…………. 1,800 liv.'

They were bought by Paillet on behalf of the King for 1,800 livres (Paillet, pour le Roi...1,800 liv.).

Objects and furniture made from hardstones formed the core of the duc d'Aumont's collection and were the source of the extraordinary excitement and anticipation that surrounded the sale. These objects were created for the duc between 1770 and 1782 in the workshops he had set up at the Hôtel des Menus-Plaisirs and the fact that the majority of them were acquired at the sale by Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette definitively cemented their fame and prestige. Of the 383,322 livres realised by the sale, over half of this (251,420 livres) had been spent by the King and Queen and they acquired 56 lots between them. Whilst the Queen's purchase of five lots was for her own cabinet and were paid for from her Privy purse, the motivation for the King's extravagance was philanthropic. Since 1768, there had been a plan to establish a public museum in the galeries du Louvre, and many of the purchases from the duc d’Aumont’s collection were intended as an endowment for the newly-born musée du Louvre. Though the superintendant of the Bâtiments du roi was charged from 1774 with the acquisition of pieces for the museum in the Grande Galerie of the Louvre it was not until after the French Revolution in 1793 that the museum finally opened. An oil painting by Hubert Robert executed in 1796 depicts a plan for the development of the grande galerie of the Louvre as a museum space. Paintings and objects from the collection are depicted in the painting, a large proportion of which are hardstone and ormolu-mounted vases and objects that correspond to the type acquired by the King from the duc d'Aumont's collection. Vases of similar form and size to the present lot are depicted on pedestals to the back left and right of the canvas and the painting is testimony to the attention and admiration afforded to these hardstone objects that formed the core of the Louvre's early collection.

The duc's interest in ancient and precious marbles had apparently been fired by his purchase from the maréchal de Richelieu of two antique porphyry vases brought back from Italy. A passion shared by a number of his contemporaries - particularly Marie-Antoinette - the marbles from which the duc's objects were created had been mined in antiquity, and the fulfilment of this passion was only made possible by the rich pickings gleaned from archaeological excavations in Italy in the 18th century. As the Observation or introductory text in the sale catalogue reveals, 'M. le Duc d'Aumont, jaloux de donner le plus grand caractère à son Cabinet, a fait les plus grandes recherches pour se procurer à Rome et dans tout l'Italie les marbres les plus rares..'.
The duc decided to set up a workshop in 1770 at the hôtel des menus-plaisirs to cut and polish precious marbles and embellish them with gilt-bronze mounts. Belanger was appointed as architect-designer and the Genoese sculptor, Augustine Bocciardi (fl.1760-90) was responsible for cutting and polishing and the sculptor Guillemin is credited with inventing a new technique for giving marbles a 'polis ferme et brillant', a description appropriate to the finish on the present lot.

Louis-Marie-Augustin d'Aumont Rochebaron, duc de Villequier, was born in Paris on the 28 October 1709. Of almost exactly the same age as Louis XV, he succeeded as duc d'Aumont in 1723 and took up his family's hereditary position as Premier gentilhomme de la Chambre du Roy. This position was held by four Dukes and embraced a wide range of responsibilities, chief amongst which was the supervision of the menus-plaisirs. The menus-plaisirs was responsible for the organisation of all Royal festivities and State occasions, as well commssioning, according to the King's wishes, any Royal gift or item for the Royal wardrobe and, following the reorganisation of 1763, each of the four premier gentilhommes took overall charge in succession for one year. Within the hôtel des menus-plaisirs in the rue du Faubourg-Poissonière were the ateliers of the craftsmen they employed, and part of the duc's responsiblities was the appointment of artists and craftsmen to the menus-plaisirs. It is, therefore, extremely pertinent that d'Aumont signed the warrants for both François-Joseph Belanger (1744-1818) and Pierre Gouthière, appointed doreur ordinaire des Menus-Plaisirs in 1767, as well as that for the architect Pierre Adrien Paris, to whom the duc had turned for the refurbishment of his hôtel in the place Louis XV, now the hôtel Crillon, in 1775.