A PAIR OF LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED CHINESE PORCELAIN CLAIR DE LUNE CARP EWERS
A PAIR OF LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED CHINESE PORCELAIN CLAIR DE LUNE CARP EWERS
A PAIR OF LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED CHINESE PORCELAIN CLAIR DE LUNE CARP EWERS
3 More
A PAIR OF LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED CHINESE PORCELAIN CLAIR DE LUNE CARP EWERS
6 More
THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE SOUTHERN COLLECTOR
A PAIR OF LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED CHINESE PORCELAIN CLAIR DE LUNE CARP EWERS

ALMOST CERTAINLY SUPPLIED BY LAZARE DUVAUX, THE PORCELAIN QIANLONG PERIOD (1735-1795), THE MOUNTS CIRCA 1750-1755

Details
A PAIR OF LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED CHINESE PORCELAIN CLAIR DE LUNE CARP EWERS
ALMOST CERTAINLY SUPPLIED BY LAZARE DUVAUX, THE PORCELAIN QIANLONG PERIOD (1735-1795), THE MOUNTS CIRCA 1750-1755
The porcelain bodies each modeled as a fierce carp with swirling water issuing from its open mouth, the raised tails set into elaborate foliate scroll mounts issuing high loop handles conceived as bulrushes and scrolls, on bases naturalistically modeled bold C-scrolls, coral, acanthus, shells and sponges, the mounts on one vase stamped M several times, presumably the mark of a 19th century restorer
12 ¼ in. (31.5 cm.) high
Provenance
Private collection, Birmingham, Alabama, probably acquired in the late 19th or early 20th century.
Acquired circa 1980s by the current owner.

Brought to you by

Marisa Davila
Marisa Davila Senior Sale Coordinator

Check the condition report or get in touch for additional information about this

Sign in
View Condition Report

Lot Essay

This model is first recorded in the Livre-Journal of the marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux in 1750. On 16 October, Louis XV's mistress Madame de Pompadour, (e Antoinette Poisson) acquired '621. Du 10 Mme la Marq. de Pompadour..Quatre morceaux de porcelaine céladon, dont deux en forme de cornets & deux poissons, le tout garni en bronze doré d'or moulu'. In 1752, the marquise bought a further deux poissons céladon (cabinet de Versailles) and the taste rapidly spread throughout the most fashionable collectors a Court, particularly among amateurs such as M. Gaignat, Jean de Juliennne and Blondel d'Azincourt.

The enduring popularity of the model throughout the second half of the eighteenth century is confirmed both through Duvaux's Livre-Journal and the comparatively high proliferation of this model in eighteenth-century sale catalogues and Inventories. Indeed, even as the ancien régime was crumbling, Louis XVI's Commander-in-Chief of the ill-fated Swiss Guards, the Baron de Besenval, was immortalized in Henri-Pierre Danloux's 1791 portrait contemplating a closely-related garniture upon the mantelpiece.

Duvaux's Livre-Journal reveals the discrepancy in cost between the varying models and the quality of the ciseleur, although the cost of the porcelain itself far exceeded that of the ormolu mounts. Thus, the pair acquired by Watteau's great patron Jean de Julienne's from Duvaux on 27 June 1753, and described as 'Deux poissons de porcelaine céladon, formant des cruches, montés en bronze doré d'or moulu', cost 960 livres. When M. Gaignat acquired 'Deux poissons d'ancienne porcelaine céladon, garnis en bronze doré d'or moulu, form de buire', in 1751, his pair cost 1,200 livres and was depicted by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin as marginalia in one of his sale catalogues. The pair acquired by Blondel d'Azincourt, the Intendant des Menus-Plaisirs and a most exacting patron, 17 October 1755 cost almost double the first: 'M. d'Azincourt..Deux poissons aussi céladon montés en buires, 1800 l'. A pair mounted as ewers was also sold to the ‘Prince de Turenne’ on 13 December 1754 and to ‘Monseigneur le Duc d’Orléans’ on 20 March 1756.

A clearer understanding of the relative costs of such elaborate ormolu mounts vis-à-vis the porcelain can be gleaned again from Duvaux, who in 1752 supplied Madame de Pompadour with 'Quatre pieds à contours en cuivre ciselé doré d'or moulu pour deux petits vases de porcelain brune & deux poissons céladon (Cabinet de Versailles), [42 l]'.

A sublime reflection of the pittoresque fantasy in the full-blown Rococo style, this form of ewer was only ever intended as ornamental. Although distinctive, categoric identification of this model in eighteenth-century sales records is near-impossible owing to both the brief descriptions and the fact that three closely related models were executed, all presumably by the same bronzier working for Duvaux. These three models comprise:

VASES OF THE PRESENT MODEL, WITH THE TAILS AS THE SPOUTS:
- the pair from the Hastings Collection at Melton Constable, Norfolk, previously in the Collection of Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; and now in the Widener Collection at the National Gallery of Art, Washington (discussed in Sir Francis Watson, 'Mounted Oriental Porcelain', Exhibition Catalogue, Washington, 1986, no. 32).
- a pair in the Royal Collection (RCIN 360), their bodies made in different kilns but matched as a pair presumably by the same marchand-mercier at the time of their mounting, possibly acquired by the Prince Regent in 1818
- a pair sold (without dating) from the Basil and Elise Gouland Collection at Christie’s, London, 11 June 1992, lot 64.

VASES OF THE 'WILDENSTEIN MODEL', WITH THE FISHES' MOUTHS AS SPOUTS:
- a pair, previously in the Rodolphe Kann Collection, Paris and the Bromberg Collection, Hamburg, later sold from the Wildenstein Collection at Christie's, London, 14-15 December 2005, lot 45 (£456,000), and subsequently sold Christie's, London, 8 July 2021, lot 5 (£562,500), the latter sale being subject to a settlement agreement between the owner and the heirs of Henry and Hertha Bromberg
- a pair sold from the collection of Consuelo Vanderbilt, Sotheby's, New York, 9 December 1994, lot 136; this pair is almost identical to the vase visible in Danloux’s portrait of Baron de Besenval
- a pair at Harewood House, Yorkshire.
- a garniture of three in the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (Isabel Pereira Coutinho, Gulbenkian Museum, 1998, no.100, p.126)
- a pair in the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (1927.165; 1927.166)
- a pair sold by Lord Robert Crichton-Stuart, Sotheby’s, London, 3 July 1959, lot 114

VASES IN THE FORM OF PAIRED CARP:
- the central vase of the Gulbenkian Garniture cited above
- that in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (illustrated in J. Lunsingh Scheerler, Chinesisches und Japanisches Porzellan in europaîschen Fassungen, Wurzburg, 1980, p.336, fig. 329)
- those offered anonymously at Sotheby's New York, 3 May 1986, lot 40

More from Important Classic & Decorative Art

View All
View All