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Lot Essay
This extraordinary centrepiece with flowers and figures of Vincennes and Meissen porcelain and a Parisian ormolu base is characteristic of the ingenious creations of the marchands-merciers under the patronage of Madame de Pompadour. Depicting the arts and sciences beneath a basket of naturalistic flowers, recent academic research has discovered that the centrepiece is almost certainly that listed in Madame de Pompadour’s posthumous 1764 inventory of her residence in Paris, the Hôtel Pompadour known today as the Palais de Élysée:
'Une corbeille formant un bouquet, garni des mêmes fleurs [de Vincennes], et entouré de sept enfants, de Saxe, sur une terrasse de bronze d'oré'.
The fashion for mounting Meissen porcelain figures and porcelain flowers with sumptuous ormolu mounts was at its height in the 1740s and promoted in particular by influential collectors such as Madame de Pompadour, who acquired the present lot for her Hôtel Pompadour, now known as the palais de l'Élysée, in Paris. The present centrepiece, struck with the ‘C couronné’ poinçon and mounted with seven putti figures emblematic of the Arts and Sciences, is an extraordinary survival of the luxurious production created by the Parisian marchand-merciers and is precisely described in the posthumous inventory of the Marquise's Parisian residence, in a first-floor cupboard for safekeeping: 'Une corbeille formant un bouquet, garni des mêmes fleurs [de Vincennes], et entouré de sept enfants, de Saxe, sur une terrasse de bronze d'oré'. This centrepiece was listed alongside many other pieces mounted with Meissen figures and valued at a total of 1,200 livres.
Only a few examples of related objects are recorded in 18th century documents. The present centrepiece could have been handled by the marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux (1703-1758) who specialised in the creation of such luxurious objects. Duvaux recorded in his Livre-Journal on the 12th December 1749 the purchase by the fermier-général Monsieur de Caze, of a costly ormolu-mounted basket filled with branches and Vincennes porcelain flowers:
‘une grande corbeille de porcelain, montée en bronze doré d’or moulu, remplie de branchages de laiton verni sur lesquels des fleurs de Vincennes assorties à chaque espèce, 1500 livres’
On the 26th May 1750, he also sold to Monsieur de Genssin:
‘Une corbeille de Saxe montée en bronze doré d’or moulu, garnie de fleurs de Vincennes, de 35 louis, 840 livres’
A third centrepiece, described with porcelain figures, was sold in the collection sale ‘Religieux de la Mercy’ on the 25th February 1777:
‘Lot 43- Une corbeille ornée et remplie de fleurs d’émail, montée sur un socle de glace, à contours et ornements de cuivre doré d’or moulu, et aux quatre coins quatre figures de porcelaine.’
The most ambitious ormolu-mounted ensemble with Vincennes flowers, was a gift of Marie-Josèphe de France to her father Augustus III of Saxony made in 1749, now at the Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden Museum (inv. PE 707). A pair of similar Vincennes bouquets, on pierced Meissen porcelain baskets but with simpler ormolu bases, is now in the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford (inv. 1917.1234.).
'Une corbeille formant un bouquet, garni des mêmes fleurs [de Vincennes], et entouré de sept enfants, de Saxe, sur une terrasse de bronze d'oré'.
The fashion for mounting Meissen porcelain figures and porcelain flowers with sumptuous ormolu mounts was at its height in the 1740s and promoted in particular by influential collectors such as Madame de Pompadour, who acquired the present lot for her Hôtel Pompadour, now known as the palais de l'Élysée, in Paris. The present centrepiece, struck with the ‘C couronné’ poinçon and mounted with seven putti figures emblematic of the Arts and Sciences, is an extraordinary survival of the luxurious production created by the Parisian marchand-merciers and is precisely described in the posthumous inventory of the Marquise's Parisian residence, in a first-floor cupboard for safekeeping: 'Une corbeille formant un bouquet, garni des mêmes fleurs [de Vincennes], et entouré de sept enfants, de Saxe, sur une terrasse de bronze d'oré'. This centrepiece was listed alongside many other pieces mounted with Meissen figures and valued at a total of 1,200 livres.
Only a few examples of related objects are recorded in 18th century documents. The present centrepiece could have been handled by the marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux (1703-1758) who specialised in the creation of such luxurious objects. Duvaux recorded in his Livre-Journal on the 12th December 1749 the purchase by the fermier-général Monsieur de Caze, of a costly ormolu-mounted basket filled with branches and Vincennes porcelain flowers:
‘une grande corbeille de porcelain, montée en bronze doré d’or moulu, remplie de branchages de laiton verni sur lesquels des fleurs de Vincennes assorties à chaque espèce, 1500 livres’
On the 26th May 1750, he also sold to Monsieur de Genssin:
‘Une corbeille de Saxe montée en bronze doré d’or moulu, garnie de fleurs de Vincennes, de 35 louis, 840 livres’
A third centrepiece, described with porcelain figures, was sold in the collection sale ‘Religieux de la Mercy’ on the 25th February 1777:
‘Lot 43- Une corbeille ornée et remplie de fleurs d’émail, montée sur un socle de glace, à contours et ornements de cuivre doré d’or moulu, et aux quatre coins quatre figures de porcelaine.’
The most ambitious ormolu-mounted ensemble with Vincennes flowers, was a gift of Marie-Josèphe de France to her father Augustus III of Saxony made in 1749, now at the Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden Museum (inv. PE 707). A pair of similar Vincennes bouquets, on pierced Meissen porcelain baskets but with simpler ormolu bases, is now in the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford (inv. 1917.1234.).