A SÈVRES BLEU NOUVEAU GROUND EWER AND BASIN (Pot à eau à la Romaine uni et Jatte), the ewer of pear-shape with a helmet-shaped lip and foliage moulded handle on a quatrefoil stepped foot, one side painted with a shepherdess and her flock being approached by a country youth, the other side with a shepherd and his companion and a youth on one knee offering her flowers both in rural landscapes within broad chased gilt bands bordered by trailing flowers and fronds tied by ribbons, a garland of gilt flowers tied with a ribbon below the spout, the top rim with a band of gilt berried laurel and the lower rim with a band of gilt scrolls and dots, the basin of lobed oval form painted with a central oval panel of a shepherdess and a boy feeding a sheep in a rural landscape and a lobed panel either end with pastoral trophies and trophies of the arts in landscapes, the gilding similar to the ewer and the exterior with trailing laurel hung from gilt bosses, blue interlaced L marks enclosing date letters CC for 1780, painter's mark G-D. for C.-C. Gérard, the ewer with gilder's mark HP for H.-M. Prévost and the same mark erased from the basin, incised 14/a and a.25 to ewer and 32 to basinthe ewer 23.2cm. highthe basin 36.5cm. wide

A SÈVRES BLEU NOUVEAU GROUND EWER AND BASIN (Pot à eau à la Romaine uni et Jatte), the ewer of pear-shape with a helmet-shaped lip and foliage moulded handle on a quatrefoil stepped foot, one side painted with a shepherdess and her flock being approached by a country youth, the other side with a shepherd and his companion and a youth on one knee offering her flowers both in rural landscapes within broad chased gilt bands bordered by trailing flowers and fronds tied by ribbons, a garland of gilt flowers tied with a ribbon below the spout, the top rim with a band of gilt berried laurel and the lower rim with a band of gilt scrolls and dots, the basin of lobed oval form painted with a central oval panel of a shepherdess and a boy feeding a sheep in a rural landscape and a lobed panel either end with pastoral trophies and trophies of the arts in landscapes, the gilding similar to the ewer and the exterior with trailing laurel hung from gilt bosses, blue interlaced L marks enclosing date letters CC for 1780, painter's mark G-D. for C.-C. Gérard, the ewer with gilder's mark HP for H.-M. Prévost and the same mark erased from the basin, incised 14/a and a.25 to ewer and 32 to basin the ewer 23.2cm. high the basin 36.5cm. wide

Details

A SÈVRES BLEU NOUVEAU GROUND EWER AND BASIN (Pot à eau à la Romaine uni et Jatte), the ewer of pear-shape with a helmet-shaped lip and foliage moulded handle on a quatrefoil stepped foot, one side painted with a shepherdess and her flock being approached by a country youth, the other side with a shepherd and his companion and a youth on one knee offering her flowers both in rural landscapes within broad chased gilt bands bordered by trailing flowers and fronds tied by ribbons, a garland of gilt flowers tied with a ribbon below the spout, the top rim with a band of gilt berried laurel and the lower rim with a band of gilt scrolls and dots, the basin of lobed oval form painted with a central oval panel of a shepherdess and a boy feeding a sheep in a rural landscape and a lobed panel either end with pastoral trophies and trophies of the arts in landscapes, the gilding similar to the ewer and the exterior with trailing laurel hung from gilt bosses, blue interlaced L marks enclosing date letters CC for 1780, painter's mark G-D. for C.-C. Gérard, the ewer with gilder's mark HP for H.-M. Prévost and the same mark erased from the basin, incised 14/a and a.25 to ewer and 32 to basin
the ewer 23.2cm. high
the basin 36.5cm. wide

Provenance

Alfred de Rothschild (died 1918)
Almina Wombwell, 5th Countess of Carnarvon, (daughter of Alfred de Rothschild), sold Christie's, 19-21 May 1925, lot 244 (Lewis and Simmons, gns.)

Lot Essay

This model is a simplified version of the rococo ewer and basin designed by Jean-Claude Duplessis by 1752. The first version was called 'à ornements'. This version with a flat surface was described a 'uni'.

The scene in the centre of the basin is based on an engraving, still in the factory's archives (no. CXV, Loutherbourg, by J.-J. Le Veau from the painting entitled L'Agneau Chéri by P.J. Loutherbourg. The same engraving was used as the source for a gobelet Bouillard in the Art Institute of Chicago, circa 1772-73, a gobelet Litron in the J.Paul Getty Museum painted in 1773 by E.-J. Chabry see Adrian Sassoon and Gillian Wilson Handbook Catalogue of Decorative Arts in the J.Paul Getty Museum, no. 177, a gobelet Litron in the Victoria and Albert Museum, painted in 1778 by C.-C. Gérard and a gobelet Litron sold Sotheby's New York, 1 December 1977, lot 235 painted in 1777 by C.-N. Dodin.

Claude-Charles Gérard working at Sèvres 1771-1824. The painter's records for Gérard in 1780 show that on June 22nd he was paid 72 livres for having painted figure scenes on one 'Pot à leau et jatte a la Romaine,', which had a beau bleu ground see the Sèvres records [Vj1,f. 128r.] The gilder Henri-Martin Prévost worked at Sèvres from 1757-1797. The kiln records for a firing on December 20 1780 show this ewer and basin clearly identified with the names of Gérard and Prévost as its decorators (Vl 1,f. 137v).

Ewers and basins of this model are known to have cost from 144 to 600 livres each, depending on their decoration

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