A SÈVRES BLEU NOUVEAU GROUND TWO-HANDLED VASE (VASE À BÂTONS ROMPUS)

Details

A SÈVRES BLEU NOUVEAU GROUND TWO-HANDLED VASE (VASE À BÂTONS ROMPUS)
CIRCA 1765, BLUE INTERLACED L'S AND INCISED C5 N4

The baluster vase with domed cover and acorn finial, the side handles draped with a gilt oak garland, painted in colours with a scene of figures before a tent, the reverse with three interlaced floral wreaths (cover restored, slight wear to gilding)--18 5/8in. (47.4cm.) high

Provenance

A French royal palace (by tradition)
Edward, Viscount Lascelles, prior to his death in 1814
By descent through the family
The Rt. Hon. the Earl of Harewood, Christie's London, July 1, 1965, lot 20

Literature

Hugh Tait, Apollo, January 1965, p. 26, fig. 8
Rosalind Savill, The Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, London, 1988, vol. I, p. 250, footnote 3-k

Lot Essay

Sèvres produced the vase à bâtons rompus in three variations of shape and two of size. Shape A, first produced in 1764, is distinguished by the moulded zig-zags and diamonds which encircle the lower part of the body. Shape C is distinguished by the lack of triglyphs on the shoulder, of handles and of oak garlands. The present vase is an example of the first size of Shape B. The three variant models were also produced in a slightly smaller version (37 - 39.3cm. high).

In 1765, Morin is recorded as having been paid 34 livres for painting soldiers on a blue ground example of the first size. Unfortunately, its size is not indicated, as it may possibly have been the present example. Dodin has also been proposed as a possible painter for the present vase. Cf. Rosalind Savill, op. cit, C270-271