Lot Essay
cf. Frederick R. Brandt, Late 19th and Early 20th Century Decorative Arts, The Sydney and Frances Lewis Collection in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1985, p. 51 for an illustration of a similar cachepot with orchids in the Museum's collection.
This deeply modeled vessel, called Orchidées, is representative of the successful collaboration between the Belgian jewelry designer Philippe Wolfers and the French firm of ceramist Emile Mõller. By 1890, Wolfers was producing sculpture in addition to jewelry and incorporated themes based on nature in both mediums. Although Mõller died in 1889, the firm, in Ivry, near Paris, continued work, and around 1897 Wolfers worked with them on the monumental cachepot model in the Lewis Collection. Wolfers also designed a series of large bronze flowerpot holders on which a group of ceramics was modeled and executed by Mõller, whose complex glazes complemented the highly sculptured vessels.
This deeply modeled vessel, called Orchidées, is representative of the successful collaboration between the Belgian jewelry designer Philippe Wolfers and the French firm of ceramist Emile Mõller. By 1890, Wolfers was producing sculpture in addition to jewelry and incorporated themes based on nature in both mediums. Although Mõller died in 1889, the firm, in Ivry, near Paris, continued work, and around 1897 Wolfers worked with them on the monumental cachepot model in the Lewis Collection. Wolfers also designed a series of large bronze flowerpot holders on which a group of ceramics was modeled and executed by Mõller, whose complex glazes complemented the highly sculptured vessels.