THE ORMOLU CIRCA 1750-1755, THE PORCELAIN FIRST HALF 18TH CENTURY

These majestic vases are remarkable not only in their impressive scale but also for their beautifully chased and modeled rocaille mounts which exemplify the mature Rococo style of Parisian bronziers in the 1750s. They belong to a distinct group of similar vases in powder-blue porcelain with closely related bulrush handles and gadrooned rims below the lids, possibly created in the same bronzier’s workshop. In the case of these vases, the rims are pierced to allow the fragrance of aromatic pot-pourri, in the form of dried flowers and spices, to waft out and perfume the room where the vases rest. Of the other examples the earliest are a pair of vases, stamped with the crowned ‘C’ (thus dating the mounts to 1745-1749) in the Frick Collection, New York (acc. no. 1915.8.42) and two single vases, the porcelain bodies of almost exactly the same shape as these examples: the first in the Forsythe Wickes Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (acc. no. 65.2262a-b) and the second in the Toledo Museum (obj. no. 1955.224A-B). A further pair of vases in the group, also stamped with the crowned 'C', but with more rocaille feet consistent with their earlier date compared to those offered here, was offered from the collection of comte Alexis de Noailles; Sotheby's, Monaco, 9 December 1995, lot 219. The celebrated marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux, the most important dealer in mounted porcelains in Paris, sold what must have been a similar vase to Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV’s official mistress and a passionate connoisseur of Asian porcelain on 6 December 1751, described as ‘Une vase d’ancienne porcelain bleue imitant le lapis, garni en bronze d’or moulu, 1320 l(ivres). A further pair of vases was sold by Duvaux to the fermier général de Case on 21 July 1749, described as 'deux vases en pot-pourri de porcelaine Gros Bleu, garnis à consoles et terrasses de bronze doré d'or moulu, 600 livres'.
While no single bronzier has been identified as responsible for this superb group of mounted porcelains, the distinctive foliate scrolls of the bases of these vases relate them to the oeuvre of the celebrated bronzier and sculpteur Jean-Claude Chambellan Duplessis (1699-1774). Duplessis was the chief designer at the Sèvres porcelain factory and the distinctive, supple modeling of the feet relates to those on vases created at the Sèvres factory in the 1750s and 1760s, for instance on a pair of cuvettes à fleurs 'Courteilles' dated 1760 in the Wallace Collection (R. Savill, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, London, 1988, vol. I, pp. 42-47, cat. no. C208-9).