Lot Essay
The overall form and design of the mounts of this vase relate it very closely to a sketch (reproduced above) of a similar Chinese vase which was part of a large group of drawings of porcelain-mounted furniture and decorative objects, some of which are inscribed with the names of Duke Albert of Saschen-Teschen and his wife Marie-Christine (Watson, op. cit., 1986, p. 126, no. 49-52).
The taste for ormolu-mounted celadon seems to have been at its height in Paris in the 1750's. Lazare Duvaux, for instance, records in his Livre-Journal numerous purchases of this porcelain by leading collectors; among his richest clients the Marquis de Voyer d'Argenson, as Courajod reports, (Livre-Journal de Lazare Duvaux, 2 vols. ed. L. Courajod, Paris 1873, p. XXXIII) 'achetait surtout chez Duvaux de la porcelaine Céladon garnie de pieds & de montures de bronze doré. Plus souvent, possesseur de piecès de choix, il chargeoit Duvaux de les monter. Celui-ci le mit en rapport avec le cèlébre modeleur Duplessis....' D'Argenson's most expensive purchase of this type is recorded in September 1750, (no. 601): 'Deux gros vases de porcelaine Céladon, montés par Duplessis en bronze doré d'ormolu 3000 l.' The descriptions are all far too brief to allow definite identification but certainly this purchase of mounted celadon is approached in value only by one made by the celebrated collector Gaignat who bought 'Deux urnes de porcelaine céladon, couvertes, montées en bronze doré d'or moulu par Duplessis, 2920 l.' on 16 March 1754. Gaignat's collection was sold after his death in 1768 and the catalogue, written by Poirier, contained twelve mounted pieces of celadon (lots 84-95). One of these (lot 91), to judge from Gabriel de Saint Aubin's marginal drawing in his annotated catalogue of the sale, was a large vase of very similar character and dimensions to the present, the body 'avec un feuillage & fleurs en bas relief bien dessiné'. The rococo bronze mounts may well have been executed by Duplessis whose connection with Gaignat is recorded by Lazare Duvaux (op.cit above).
Jean-Claude Duplessis, père (d.1774), Torinese by birth, sculptor, decorative designer and fondeur-ciseleur, is known chiefly for his work as a modeller at the Sèvres factory. Documented bronzes by him are extremely rare: among the best known examples are the mounts for the Bureau du Roi Louis XV and a mounted Sèvres vase of flowers on shaped bases given by the Dauphine Maria-Josepha to her father Augustus III, King of Saxony in 1749 (see Serge Gauthier, Les porcelainiers du XVIIIe siècle francais, 1964, p. 169).
Other examples with similar mounts (particularly the bullrush handles) have also been associated with Duplessis, notably a pair of fish ewers formerly in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, sold Sotheby's New York, 5 May 1984, lot 136 (illustrated and discussed in F.J.B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection, vol. II, 1966, p. 434, no. 244) and a brown crackle glaze vase in the Louvre illustrated in P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Français du XVIIIe Siècle, 1987, p. 123, fig. 158.
The taste for ormolu-mounted celadon seems to have been at its height in Paris in the 1750's. Lazare Duvaux, for instance, records in his Livre-Journal numerous purchases of this porcelain by leading collectors; among his richest clients the Marquis de Voyer d'Argenson, as Courajod reports, (Livre-Journal de Lazare Duvaux, 2 vols. ed. L. Courajod, Paris 1873, p. XXXIII) 'achetait surtout chez Duvaux de la porcelaine Céladon garnie de pieds & de montures de bronze doré. Plus souvent, possesseur de piecès de choix, il chargeoit Duvaux de les monter. Celui-ci le mit en rapport avec le cèlébre modeleur Duplessis....' D'Argenson's most expensive purchase of this type is recorded in September 1750, (no. 601): 'Deux gros vases de porcelaine Céladon, montés par Duplessis en bronze doré d'ormolu 3000 l.' The descriptions are all far too brief to allow definite identification but certainly this purchase of mounted celadon is approached in value only by one made by the celebrated collector Gaignat who bought 'Deux urnes de porcelaine céladon, couvertes, montées en bronze doré d'or moulu par Duplessis, 2920 l.' on 16 March 1754. Gaignat's collection was sold after his death in 1768 and the catalogue, written by Poirier, contained twelve mounted pieces of celadon (lots 84-95). One of these (lot 91), to judge from Gabriel de Saint Aubin's marginal drawing in his annotated catalogue of the sale, was a large vase of very similar character and dimensions to the present, the body 'avec un feuillage & fleurs en bas relief bien dessiné'. The rococo bronze mounts may well have been executed by Duplessis whose connection with Gaignat is recorded by Lazare Duvaux (op.cit above).
Jean-Claude Duplessis, père (d.1774), Torinese by birth, sculptor, decorative designer and fondeur-ciseleur, is known chiefly for his work as a modeller at the Sèvres factory. Documented bronzes by him are extremely rare: among the best known examples are the mounts for the Bureau du Roi Louis XV and a mounted Sèvres vase of flowers on shaped bases given by the Dauphine Maria-Josepha to her father Augustus III, King of Saxony in 1749 (see Serge Gauthier, Les porcelainiers du XVIIIe siècle francais, 1964, p. 169).
Other examples with similar mounts (particularly the bullrush handles) have also been associated with Duplessis, notably a pair of fish ewers formerly in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, sold Sotheby's New York, 5 May 1984, lot 136 (illustrated and discussed in F.J.B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection, vol. II, 1966, p. 434, no. 244) and a brown crackle glaze vase in the Louvre illustrated in P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Français du XVIIIe Siècle, 1987, p. 123, fig. 158.