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拍品專文
The figure of Cupid was originally conceived in marble by Maurice Antoine Falconet in 1755 and exhibited at the Salon in that year. When he became director of the Sèvres porcelain factory in 1758, Falconet adapted the model for execution in biscuit porcelain. A figure of Psyche was conceived as a pendant in 1761. It was never executed in marble.
Pedestals for these two figures also appear as of 1761, inscribed with single lines taken from Virgil's Eclogues (x, 69): OMNIA VINCIT AMOR for Cupid and ET NOS CEDAMUS AMORI for Psyche. Alternatively, pedestals for these models are also known inscribed with couplets by Voltaire. Cf the pair from a distinguished Private Collection sold Christie's, New York, 21 October 1997, lot 103.
The present pedestal is not original to the present figure, the inscription indicating that it was originally intended to support a figure of Psyche. However, it would appear to form a pair with the pedestal for Cupid in the Wallace Collection, no. C492.
In her catalogue entry for this figure and pedestal, Rosalind Savill cites as possible provenance three examples of Cupid listed in the Sèvres sales records as having bleu lapis pedestals: one sold to an unknown buyer on 8 February 1763 at 96 livres each for the biscuit figure and the pedestal, one sold for the same price to the duc de Choiseul on 24 March 1764, and one sold again for the same price and to an unknown buyer on 2 June 1764. She also notes a fourth possibility, that "C492 was once matched with Psyche (when it could have been purchased by 'le controleur général, Bertin, on 25 December 1762)." The discovery of the present pedestal, identical in size, decoration, tooling pattern and positioning of the entwined vine to the Wallace example, proves this fourth hypothesis.
Also of interest are the ink inscriptions on the underside of the present figure of Cupid: 96# 96 222. The first two must certainly refer to the price for which the figure was originally sold. The third may refer to a ledger entry in the Sèvres salesroom records.
See Rosalind Savill, The Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, London, 1988, vol. II, pp. 823-828, 833 (footnotes 30-33); vol. III, pp. 1140-1142 (re tooling pattern 4).
Pedestals for these two figures also appear as of 1761, inscribed with single lines taken from Virgil's Eclogues (x, 69): OMNIA VINCIT AMOR for Cupid and ET NOS CEDAMUS AMORI for Psyche. Alternatively, pedestals for these models are also known inscribed with couplets by Voltaire. Cf the pair from a distinguished Private Collection sold Christie's, New York, 21 October 1997, lot 103.
The present pedestal is not original to the present figure, the inscription indicating that it was originally intended to support a figure of Psyche. However, it would appear to form a pair with the pedestal for Cupid in the Wallace Collection, no. C492.
In her catalogue entry for this figure and pedestal, Rosalind Savill cites as possible provenance three examples of Cupid listed in the Sèvres sales records as having bleu lapis pedestals: one sold to an unknown buyer on 8 February 1763 at 96 livres each for the biscuit figure and the pedestal, one sold for the same price to the duc de Choiseul on 24 March 1764, and one sold again for the same price and to an unknown buyer on 2 June 1764. She also notes a fourth possibility, that "C492 was once matched with Psyche (when it could have been purchased by 'le controleur général, Bertin, on 25 December 1762)." The discovery of the present pedestal, identical in size, decoration, tooling pattern and positioning of the entwined vine to the Wallace example, proves this fourth hypothesis.
Also of interest are the ink inscriptions on the underside of the present figure of Cupid: 96# 96 222. The first two must certainly refer to the price for which the figure was originally sold. The third may refer to a ledger entry in the Sèvres salesroom records.
See Rosalind Savill, The Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, London, 1988, vol. II, pp. 823-828, 833 (footnotes 30-33); vol. III, pp. 1140-1142 (re tooling pattern 4).