CIRCA 1755, THE MOUNTS CIRCA 1819, THE GILT-COPPER TELESCOPING SHAFT WITH MAKER'S MARK FOR N.B. BURON

Details

A GOLD-MOUNTED VINCENNES BLEU CÉLESTE SPYGLASS (Lorgnette)
Circa 1755, the mounts circa 1819, the gilt-copper telescoping shaft with maker's mark for N.B. Buron
Of cylindrical form, painted in colours with trophies of flowers entwined with either a hunting horn, bow and quiver of arrows or a winged flaming torch and a pilgrim's straw hat, flask and purse, each reserved on the turquoise ground within a chased gilt rocaille cartouche of flower sprays and trellis diaper, within gilt dent-de-loup edges, the eye-piece and magnifying lens within gold reeded mounts, the telescoping shaft gilt copper
3 3/16in. (8.1cm.) long, 4 3/8in. (11.1cm.) long when extended

Provenance

Baroness Renée de Becker
Mr. and Mrs. Deane Johnson, Sotheby Parke-Bernet Inc., New York, 9 December 1972, lot 8
With the Antique Porcelain Company, New York
John T. Dorrance, Jr., Sotheby's New York, 20 October 1989, lot 172

Lot Essay

Vincennes and Sèvres produced lorgnettes in a variety of sizes. An ivory-mounted Sèvres example dated circa 1756 and decorated with a trellis of green ribbons enclosing flowers is in the collection of the Louvre. Another, dated circa 1765 and in the Wrightsman Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, is painted with a terrace of flowers within gilt lacy borders and mounted in brass (Carl C. Dauterman, The Wrightsman Collection Porcelain, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1970, vol. IV, no. 90).

See Marcelle Brunet and Tamara Práud, Sèvres des origines à nos jours, Paris, 1978, no.95 and Pierre Verlet et al, Sèvres, 1953, p. 210, pl. 51b for a discussion of the above-mentioned examples and others.

The records of the marchand mercier Lazard Duvaux note many sales of spyglasses including one to the Maquise de Pompadour on 22 December 1756 for 180 livres of "une lorgnette de Vincennes garnie d'or" (a Vincennes spyglass mounted in gold).