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Lot Essay
THE WRIGHTSMAN COLLECTION AT BLYTHDUNES
These magnificent ormolu-mounted Chinese vases formed part of the legendary collection of Jayne Wrightsman (1919-2019), a connoisseur and patron of the arts who played a central role in reviving the field of French decorative arts in the United States. Mrs. Wrightsman and her husband, Charles B. Wrightsman (1895-1986), built an exceptional collection of furniture and works of art and served as Trustees of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, making transformative gifts to the museum and establishing The Wrightsman Galleries for French Decorative Arts.
Learned, elegant and generous, Jayne Wrightsman embodied both style and substance. A brilliant autodidact, she became an expert in eighteenth-century French decorative arts, European paintings, and eighteenth-century French manuscripts, books and bindings. In her 99 years, Jayne Wrightsman’s exquisite taste influenced both the works she donated to museums and those that filled her carefully curated homes. John Walker (1906-1995), the former director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, described the Wrightsmans’ collection of furniture, rugs, porcelains and objets d’art as being ‘unsurpassed on this side of the Atlantic’.
The ewers formed part of the remarkable collection showcased in Blythedunes, the 28-room, oceanfront estate in Palm Beach Wrightsmans' Palm Beach estate purchased for Jayne by Charles in 1947, as a gift for their third wedding anniversary. Designed by architect Maurice Fatio, the property featured fashionable, all-white interiors by the decorator Syrie Maugham, and gardens created by another society style icon, Mona Bismarck Williams. Mrs. Wrightsman was keen to leave her own mark on the house, however, and she enlisted Stéphane Boudin from Maison Jansen to collaborate on a redesign. Boudin encouraged his client to consider the refinement, skill and quality of eighteenth-century French furniture and decorative arts. And so, said Jayne, ‘I started sort of Marie Antoinette-ing it up.’ It was a controversial move as the vogue for eighteenth-century French interiors was still some decade in the future. Nevertheless, within a few short years, Mrs. Wrightsman and Boudin had transformed Blythedunes into what Walker described as an ‘American triumph’ of courtly French taste.
THE MODEL
These vases have been cleverly converted by the bronzier into ewers, or buires, through the addition of an ormolu handle and spout, and a number of examples are recorded in notable collections in the eighteenth century. Lazare Duvaux, the most important dealer of mounted porcelains in Paris, sold what must have been a similar pair of mounted celadon ewers to Madame de Pompadour on 6 December 1751, for the huge sum of 1,680 livres. Madame de Pompadour's pair were described as ‘Deux autres vases en hauteur de porcelaine céladon ancienne, montés en forme de buire, en bronze ciselé dorés d'or moulu', and on 3 August of the same year he sold to the comte du Luc: ‘Deux buires de porcelaine Céladon, garnies en bronze doré d'or moulu, 720 Livres’. A further pair of ewers specifically described as being in celadon porcelain were sold in the collection of the celebrated connoisseur Jean Gaignat in 1769, when they were described as ‘Deux très jolis Vases même porcelain celadon à côtes, d’une couleur douce & un émail très brillant, d’environ 11 pouces, également garnis en formes de buires ; les ornemens très bien ciselés en bronze doré’. These ewers are illustrated in the celebrated copy of this catalogue annotated by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, where the bodies appear to have the same ribbing.
Other related ewers are in the Jones Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum (illustrated in Apollo, February 1957, p. 63), and two pairs in the Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor (illustrated in G. de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor: Furniture and Gilt Bronzes, Fribourg, 1974, vol. II, cat. no. 195, pp. 750-751, the bodies in blue porcelain, stamped with the crowned 'C' and thus dated 1745-1749, and cat. no. 197. pp. 754-755, the bodies in celadon porcelain), while a further related pair of ewers, also with ribbed celadon bodies, was sold from the collection of Alexandrine de Rothschild; Sotheby's, London, 18-19 May 1967, lot 137.
These magnificent ormolu-mounted Chinese vases formed part of the legendary collection of Jayne Wrightsman (1919-2019), a connoisseur and patron of the arts who played a central role in reviving the field of French decorative arts in the United States. Mrs. Wrightsman and her husband, Charles B. Wrightsman (1895-1986), built an exceptional collection of furniture and works of art and served as Trustees of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, making transformative gifts to the museum and establishing The Wrightsman Galleries for French Decorative Arts.
Learned, elegant and generous, Jayne Wrightsman embodied both style and substance. A brilliant autodidact, she became an expert in eighteenth-century French decorative arts, European paintings, and eighteenth-century French manuscripts, books and bindings. In her 99 years, Jayne Wrightsman’s exquisite taste influenced both the works she donated to museums and those that filled her carefully curated homes. John Walker (1906-1995), the former director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, described the Wrightsmans’ collection of furniture, rugs, porcelains and objets d’art as being ‘unsurpassed on this side of the Atlantic’.
The ewers formed part of the remarkable collection showcased in Blythedunes, the 28-room, oceanfront estate in Palm Beach Wrightsmans' Palm Beach estate purchased for Jayne by Charles in 1947, as a gift for their third wedding anniversary. Designed by architect Maurice Fatio, the property featured fashionable, all-white interiors by the decorator Syrie Maugham, and gardens created by another society style icon, Mona Bismarck Williams. Mrs. Wrightsman was keen to leave her own mark on the house, however, and she enlisted Stéphane Boudin from Maison Jansen to collaborate on a redesign. Boudin encouraged his client to consider the refinement, skill and quality of eighteenth-century French furniture and decorative arts. And so, said Jayne, ‘I started sort of Marie Antoinette-ing it up.’ It was a controversial move as the vogue for eighteenth-century French interiors was still some decade in the future. Nevertheless, within a few short years, Mrs. Wrightsman and Boudin had transformed Blythedunes into what Walker described as an ‘American triumph’ of courtly French taste.
THE MODEL
These vases have been cleverly converted by the bronzier into ewers, or buires, through the addition of an ormolu handle and spout, and a number of examples are recorded in notable collections in the eighteenth century. Lazare Duvaux, the most important dealer of mounted porcelains in Paris, sold what must have been a similar pair of mounted celadon ewers to Madame de Pompadour on 6 December 1751, for the huge sum of 1,680 livres. Madame de Pompadour's pair were described as ‘Deux autres vases en hauteur de porcelaine céladon ancienne, montés en forme de buire, en bronze ciselé dorés d'or moulu', and on 3 August of the same year he sold to the comte du Luc: ‘Deux buires de porcelaine Céladon, garnies en bronze doré d'or moulu, 720 Livres’. A further pair of ewers specifically described as being in celadon porcelain were sold in the collection of the celebrated connoisseur Jean Gaignat in 1769, when they were described as ‘Deux très jolis Vases même porcelain celadon à côtes, d’une couleur douce & un émail très brillant, d’environ 11 pouces, également garnis en formes de buires ; les ornemens très bien ciselés en bronze doré’. These ewers are illustrated in the celebrated copy of this catalogue annotated by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, where the bodies appear to have the same ribbing.
Other related ewers are in the Jones Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum (illustrated in Apollo, February 1957, p. 63), and two pairs in the Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor (illustrated in G. de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor: Furniture and Gilt Bronzes, Fribourg, 1974, vol. II, cat. no. 195, pp. 750-751, the bodies in blue porcelain, stamped with the crowned 'C' and thus dated 1745-1749, and cat. no. 197. pp. 754-755, the bodies in celadon porcelain), while a further related pair of ewers, also with ribbed celadon bodies, was sold from the collection of Alexandrine de Rothschild; Sotheby's, London, 18-19 May 1967, lot 137.