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Lot Essay
Embellished with vine garlands suspended from ram’s masks, these superb vases are richly gilt ‘au mat’, a gilding and burnishing technique perfected by the celebrated ciseleur-doreur du Roi, Pierre Gouthiere (d. 1813), who almost certainly executed them in the fashionable ‘antique’ manner of the 1770s.
These vases are precisely described as lot 261 in the 1792 sale catalogue of the celebrated collection of the banker and connoisseur François-Michel Harenc de Presle (1710-1802) in a section of the sale dedicated to white marble objects.
The vases are described in the delayed sale of François-Michel Harenc de Presle on 30 April 1795 thus:
‘MARBRE BLANC.
[…]
184 Idem. Deux vases de belle forme svelte, garnis sur les côtés de têtes de béliers à guirlandes de feuilles de vignes et grappes de raisins, avec collets d’entrelac à longues feuilles d’eau au culot, piédouches et socles à panneaux renfoncés en bronze doré au mat. Hauteur 13 pouces et demi, diamètre 8 et demi.’
This description matches precisely the present vases with the measurements also matching exactly. François-Michel Harenc de Presle (1710-1802) was one of the great collectors of the second half of the 18th century, ranking alongside the duc d’Aumont, Randon de Boisset, Blondel de Gagny and indeed Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI. Celebrated in his own time as a patron of the arts, Harenc de Presle not only collected the work of contemporary artists like Boucher and Clodion but was also renowned as a collector of Boulle furniture and other decorative arts. This is evidenced in printed literature of the period with the Almanach des artistes of 1777 writing of him "... autre banquier de la rue du sentier, Harenc de Presle, propriétaire d'une belle collection de tableaux des trois écoles. Il y a joint de précieux ouvrages du fameux Boulle") and the writer Jean-François Marmontel recording in his memoirs: "Mme Harenc avait un fils unique, aussi laid qu'elle est aussi aimable. C'est ce Mr de Presle qui, je crois, vit encore et qui s'est longtemps distingué par son goût et par ses lumières parmi les amateurs d'art" (JF Marmontel, Mémoires, 1792, p.68).
A banker of considerable means, Harenc de Presle lived in an hôtel on the Rue du Sentier described in Luc-Vincent’s Thierry’s guide to Paris of 1787 (Guide des amateurs et des étrangers voyageurs à Paris, pp. 443-447). His taste for fine furniture and mounted objects is related and Thierry describes the contents of the hôtel in detail, mentioning in particular a number of magnificent vases in marbles, hardstones and porcelain mounted with ormolu. After becoming blind in his old age, Harenc de Presle chose to sell his collection at auction.
The quality and design of these vases firmly support an attribution to the ciseleur-doreur Pierre Gouthière. The attribution to Gouthière, whose work was unsurpassed by almost any other 18th century bronzier, is supported not only by the superlative quality and highly individual chasing of the mounts but elements of the design which are seen on documented pieces by the bronzier. Very characteristic and specific to his oeuvre is the technique and finish known as the dorure au mat, a matte gilding seen on the swags and foliate waisting that contrasts with the burnished handles of the vase and clearly a detail thought worthy of special mention in the lot description of these vases in Harenc de Presle’s sale catalogue.
The design itself is very closely related, and almost certainly derived from, a design for a vase for Guilliaume du Tillot, marquis de Felino (minister at the court of Louis XV's daughter Louise-Élisabeth of Parma) by Ennemond Alexandre Petitot (1727-1801), published in Suite des vases tirée du cabinet de M. du Tillot marquis de Fellino: gravée à l'eau forte d'après les desseins originaux de M. le chevalier Ennemond Alexandre Petitot [...] par Benigno Bossi [...], 1764. Plate 3 of the etchings presents a vase with closely related and in some cases identical mounts to the present lot. As well as the laurel edge ot the base of the socle and the feuilles d'eau mount to the waist of the vase, the goats head handles are similar to those on the present lot and the design of the vine leaves is identical. It is clear that Gouthière was informed by this design and it was employed not only on these vases but on several other works by the bronzier.
An almost identical vase, of white marble and also without a cover, was acquired by Frederick the Great of Prussia for his palaces at Potsdam before 1773 and later photographed in 1916 in the Green French Room of the Berlin Stadtschloss. This vase was among a number of French ormolu-mounted hardstone vases acquired by Frederick the Great; the vases were described in 1774 by the Inspecteur of the Prussian collections, Matthias Oesterreich, as being after designs by François Boucher and originally commissioned for Madame de Pompadour.
Identical mounts feature on vases in the collection of Baron Leopold Double (d. 1881) and in the fabled collection of couturier Jacques Doucet (d. 1929) as well as on the central vase of a garniture of Chinese celadon porcelain vases offered in this sale (lot 44). The ornamental device of a goats head combined with grape vines is one frequently employed by Gouthière. The goats head handles on the present lot relate directly to the mounts on a number of pieces by Gouthière including a chimneypiece commissioned for Madame du Barry’s Salon Ovale at Louveciennes (illustrated C. Vignon & C. Baulez, Pierre Gouthière, New York, 2016, pp.250-251), which shows the same goats heads above trailing vines and grapes of almost identical character to the swags on the present lot, as well as a vase which shows a related goats head handle commissioned for the duc d’Aumont and sold in his sale as lot 12 where it was acquired by Louis XVI (illustrated op. cit. pp.192-193). The vine swags of the present lot relate closely to those on an incense burner commissioned by the Duc d’Aumont and sold in his sale as lot 24 where it was acquired by Marie-Antoinette (illustrated op. cit. pp. 196-197) and one of a pair of ewers acquired by Tsar Paul I in Paris in 1799 (illustrated op. cit. p.168) which varies in ram handles rather than goat heads but displays closely related vine leaf swags. The goat head and vine leaf motif is also combined, with variations to the design, on a pair of candelabra commissioned by the duc d’Aumont (illustrated op. cit. pp. 218-219).
These vases are precisely described as lot 261 in the 1792 sale catalogue of the celebrated collection of the banker and connoisseur François-Michel Harenc de Presle (1710-1802) in a section of the sale dedicated to white marble objects.
The vases are described in the delayed sale of François-Michel Harenc de Presle on 30 April 1795 thus:
‘MARBRE BLANC.
[…]
184 Idem. Deux vases de belle forme svelte, garnis sur les côtés de têtes de béliers à guirlandes de feuilles de vignes et grappes de raisins, avec collets d’entrelac à longues feuilles d’eau au culot, piédouches et socles à panneaux renfoncés en bronze doré au mat. Hauteur 13 pouces et demi, diamètre 8 et demi.’
This description matches precisely the present vases with the measurements also matching exactly. François-Michel Harenc de Presle (1710-1802) was one of the great collectors of the second half of the 18th century, ranking alongside the duc d’Aumont, Randon de Boisset, Blondel de Gagny and indeed Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI. Celebrated in his own time as a patron of the arts, Harenc de Presle not only collected the work of contemporary artists like Boucher and Clodion but was also renowned as a collector of Boulle furniture and other decorative arts. This is evidenced in printed literature of the period with the Almanach des artistes of 1777 writing of him "... autre banquier de la rue du sentier, Harenc de Presle, propriétaire d'une belle collection de tableaux des trois écoles. Il y a joint de précieux ouvrages du fameux Boulle") and the writer Jean-François Marmontel recording in his memoirs: "Mme Harenc avait un fils unique, aussi laid qu'elle est aussi aimable. C'est ce Mr de Presle qui, je crois, vit encore et qui s'est longtemps distingué par son goût et par ses lumières parmi les amateurs d'art" (JF Marmontel, Mémoires, 1792, p.68).
A banker of considerable means, Harenc de Presle lived in an hôtel on the Rue du Sentier described in Luc-Vincent’s Thierry’s guide to Paris of 1787 (Guide des amateurs et des étrangers voyageurs à Paris, pp. 443-447). His taste for fine furniture and mounted objects is related and Thierry describes the contents of the hôtel in detail, mentioning in particular a number of magnificent vases in marbles, hardstones and porcelain mounted with ormolu. After becoming blind in his old age, Harenc de Presle chose to sell his collection at auction.
The quality and design of these vases firmly support an attribution to the ciseleur-doreur Pierre Gouthière. The attribution to Gouthière, whose work was unsurpassed by almost any other 18th century bronzier, is supported not only by the superlative quality and highly individual chasing of the mounts but elements of the design which are seen on documented pieces by the bronzier. Very characteristic and specific to his oeuvre is the technique and finish known as the dorure au mat, a matte gilding seen on the swags and foliate waisting that contrasts with the burnished handles of the vase and clearly a detail thought worthy of special mention in the lot description of these vases in Harenc de Presle’s sale catalogue.
The design itself is very closely related, and almost certainly derived from, a design for a vase for Guilliaume du Tillot, marquis de Felino (minister at the court of Louis XV's daughter Louise-Élisabeth of Parma) by Ennemond Alexandre Petitot (1727-1801), published in Suite des vases tirée du cabinet de M. du Tillot marquis de Fellino: gravée à l'eau forte d'après les desseins originaux de M. le chevalier Ennemond Alexandre Petitot [...] par Benigno Bossi [...], 1764. Plate 3 of the etchings presents a vase with closely related and in some cases identical mounts to the present lot. As well as the laurel edge ot the base of the socle and the feuilles d'eau mount to the waist of the vase, the goats head handles are similar to those on the present lot and the design of the vine leaves is identical. It is clear that Gouthière was informed by this design and it was employed not only on these vases but on several other works by the bronzier.
An almost identical vase, of white marble and also without a cover, was acquired by Frederick the Great of Prussia for his palaces at Potsdam before 1773 and later photographed in 1916 in the Green French Room of the Berlin Stadtschloss. This vase was among a number of French ormolu-mounted hardstone vases acquired by Frederick the Great; the vases were described in 1774 by the Inspecteur of the Prussian collections, Matthias Oesterreich, as being after designs by François Boucher and originally commissioned for Madame de Pompadour.
Identical mounts feature on vases in the collection of Baron Leopold Double (d. 1881) and in the fabled collection of couturier Jacques Doucet (d. 1929) as well as on the central vase of a garniture of Chinese celadon porcelain vases offered in this sale (lot 44). The ornamental device of a goats head combined with grape vines is one frequently employed by Gouthière. The goats head handles on the present lot relate directly to the mounts on a number of pieces by Gouthière including a chimneypiece commissioned for Madame du Barry’s Salon Ovale at Louveciennes (illustrated C. Vignon & C. Baulez, Pierre Gouthière, New York, 2016, pp.250-251), which shows the same goats heads above trailing vines and grapes of almost identical character to the swags on the present lot, as well as a vase which shows a related goats head handle commissioned for the duc d’Aumont and sold in his sale as lot 12 where it was acquired by Louis XVI (illustrated op. cit. pp.192-193). The vine swags of the present lot relate closely to those on an incense burner commissioned by the Duc d’Aumont and sold in his sale as lot 24 where it was acquired by Marie-Antoinette (illustrated op. cit. pp. 196-197) and one of a pair of ewers acquired by Tsar Paul I in Paris in 1799 (illustrated op. cit. p.168) which varies in ram handles rather than goat heads but displays closely related vine leaf swags. The goat head and vine leaf motif is also combined, with variations to the design, on a pair of candelabra commissioned by the duc d’Aumont (illustrated op. cit. pp. 218-219).