Lots 311-313 VASES À MONTER The Sèvres factory produced vases à monter, or vases intended to be fitted with ormolu mounts, beginning in around 1764. The main three forms of such vases assembled into garnitures were tapering cylindrical (of two differing dimensions) and egg shaped. These finished glazed vases were sold largely to marchand-merciers who then embellished them with mounts. The earlier vases were glazed in solid ground colors, however invoices exist for pieces decorated with green and blue grounds scattered with foliate wreaths centered by roses by 1770. The vases or goblets cloches, or mounted vases, bear mounts of one of five basic styles. This indicates in all likelihood that the marchand-merciers who purchased the vases à monter produced their own signature mounts. A complete garniture incorporating a pair of egg-form vases, a pair of small cylindrical and one large cylindrical vase is in the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford (see Linda H. Roth and Clare Le Corbeiller, French Eighteenth Century Porcelain at the Wadsworth Atheneum: The J. Pierpont Morgan Collection, 2000, p 156, fig 74.). Lots 311 and 312 illustrate two of the same forms of vases as seen in the Wadsworth Atheneum garniture, as well as simililar mounts, which could conceivably have been provided by the same marchand-mercier. Interestingly, Lot 313, a pair of flourspar vases, possesses similar rectilinear neoclassic mounts ending in lion's masks as are seen on the central covered vase in the Wadsworth garniture. Property of a Distinguished Private Collector (lot 311)

A PAIR OF LOUIS XV/XVI ORMOLU-MOUNTED SEVRES BLEU CELESTE PORCELAIN TWO-HANDLED POTPOURRI VASES AND COVERS

CIRCA 1770

Details

A PAIR OF LOUIS XV/XVI ORMOLU-MOUNTED SEVRES BLEU CELESTE PORCELAIN TWO-HANDLED POTPOURRI VASES AND COVERS
Circa 1770
Each with a foliate-knopped finial, scrolled acanthus handles and pierced guilloche frieze, the porcelain body with white floral reserves, on a fluted vase head etched with leaf tips, on a square base
8½in. (21.6cm) high, 5¼in. (13.3cm.) wide, 3½in. (8.9cm.) deep (2)

Provenance

The Elizabeth Parke Firestone Collection, sold in these Rooms, 23 March 1991, lot 875 ($25,300 including premium).

Lot Essay

A three piece garniture of identically mounted vases, formerly in the collection of Mme. Jules Fribourg, are illustrated in S. Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism in France, 1974, p. 363, fig 242. Another pair, again formerly part of a garniture, with apple-green ground was in the collection of the Late Earl of Sefton and sold Christie's House Sale at Croxteth Hall, Liverpool, 17-20 September 1973, lot 908 and again Christie's London, 5 July 1984, lot 12.

More from Important French and Continental Furniture, Works of Art,

View All