Lot Essay
Another vase of this form is in the Musée National de La Céramique at Sèvres, and from a set of four painted with subjects after Raphael and Potter is illustrated by Régine de Plinval de Guillebon, op. cit.(1972), fig. 142. At 40cm. high they were somewhat smaller than the present pair. Two such vases were exhibited in 1819.
The ornamental decoration on this pair of vases is quite clearly derived from the designs of C. Percier and P.F.L Fontaine. Their Recueil de décorations intérieures comprenant tout ce qui à rapport à l'ameublement, included in the edition of 1812, the designs for La Salle de Vénus du Musée Napoléon. Pl. LXVIII shows a caryatid with a cornucopia from which the examples on the present vases would seem to be derived. Pl. XV from the same work, which depicts designs for a bedroom carried out in Paris includes a basket of flowers closely similar to the one flanked by the two caryatids. The birds flying above and the thyrsus and medallion motif on the base are all part of the vocabulary of Percier and Fontaine and it is evident that the unknown designer and/or decorator of these vases was well versed in the 'language' elaborated by them.
The rich reflective burnished gilding on the reverse of the vases, so skilfully used to project the russet decoration, may seem extravagant for a surface that would not normally be visible. This, however, is to forget the role of the mirror, which at this date served both as a vehicle of extra light and to reflect the reverses of vases de cheminée such as these.
The ornamental decoration on this pair of vases is quite clearly derived from the designs of C. Percier and P.F.L Fontaine. Their Recueil de décorations intérieures comprenant tout ce qui à rapport à l'ameublement, included in the edition of 1812, the designs for La Salle de Vénus du Musée Napoléon. Pl. LXVIII shows a caryatid with a cornucopia from which the examples on the present vases would seem to be derived. Pl. XV from the same work, which depicts designs for a bedroom carried out in Paris includes a basket of flowers closely similar to the one flanked by the two caryatids. The birds flying above and the thyrsus and medallion motif on the base are all part of the vocabulary of Percier and Fontaine and it is evident that the unknown designer and/or decorator of these vases was well versed in the 'language' elaborated by them.
The rich reflective burnished gilding on the reverse of the vases, so skilfully used to project the russet decoration, may seem extravagant for a surface that would not normally be visible. This, however, is to forget the role of the mirror, which at this date served both as a vehicle of extra light and to reflect the reverses of vases de cheminée such as these.