Lot Essay
The subjects on this vase, with one minor modification, are taken directly from Jean-Antoine Fraisse, Livre de Dessins Chinois, published in 1735. As J.G.V. Mallet, in his introduction to 'Porcelain for Palaces', Exhibition Catalogue (1990), pp. 50-52, points out that this book was dedicated to the Prince de Condé and that Fraisse had used the ducal collections of Oriental ceramics at Chantilly as a primary source of subject matter. It is interesting, therefore, to consider whether perhaps the book was not also intended as some kind of pattern-book for Condé's young porcelain manufactury.
The example of this form and size in 'Porcelain for Palaces', Exhibition Catalogue (1990), no. 188 differs from the present lot in that the reverse depicts a seated dignitary with a boy and two female attendants. It appeared in our Geneva Rooms on 20 April 1970, lot 24 and is also illustrated by Geneviève Le Duc, Porcelaine tendre de Chantilly au XVIIIe siècle (1996), pp. 116-117. See also Geneviève Le Duc, ibid. (1996), p. 118 for an example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York of different form but with the same scene of figures at a table eating.
No other example of this form would appear to be recorded and neither of the known examples have covers. The entirely glazed interior to the neck would seem to support the view that no cover was intended for this model.
The example of this form and size in 'Porcelain for Palaces', Exhibition Catalogue (1990), no. 188 differs from the present lot in that the reverse depicts a seated dignitary with a boy and two female attendants. It appeared in our Geneva Rooms on 20 April 1970, lot 24 and is also illustrated by Geneviève Le Duc, Porcelaine tendre de Chantilly au XVIIIe siècle (1996), pp. 116-117. See also Geneviève Le Duc, ibid. (1996), p. 118 for an example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York of different form but with the same scene of figures at a table eating.
No other example of this form would appear to be recorded and neither of the known examples have covers. The entirely glazed interior to the neck would seem to support the view that no cover was intended for this model.