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Lot Essay
Titled in the factory records Le Tournoi (The Tournement), the present vase is similar in paste, technique, and subject to a slightly smaller pâte-sur-pâte vase by Taxile Doat exhibited in Paris on the Sèvres stand at the Exposition Universelle of 1889 and illustrated on page 387 of the 1 May 1889 issue of The Pottery Gazette [Bernard Bumpus, Pâte-sur-Pâte: The Art of Ceramic Relief Decoration, 1849-1992, London, 1992, p. 45].
The vase's description in the caption to the illustration as decorated '..in paste relief and engraving' underscores the difference in pâte-sur-pâte technique as developed by Louis Marc Solon and practiced since the third quarter at Minton and as developed by Doat and practiced at Sèvres in the fourth quarter of the 19th century - the difference between layering white slip on a coloured ground and moulding, building up with paste, and carving away the surface then coloring it.
For years, the two firms had maintained close ties, with artists from Sèvres coming across the Channel to work in Stoke-on-Trent. Indeed, the French sculptor Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse worked at Minton 1850-1855 and was in no small way responsible for the English firm's successful 'coming out' as a porcelain manufactury of international standing at the Crystal Palace exhibition of 1851. He was responsible for designing the forms for lots 135 and 138 in the present sale, both important Minton pâte-sur-pâte vases decorated by Louis Marc Solon. Solon had arrived from Sèvres just after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and is credited with developing the factory's production of pâte-sur-pâte.
By the time of the Exposition Universelle of 1878, the student had surpassed the teacher, and the public's perception was that the Minton's pâte-sur-pâte was superior to that at Sèvres - an impression not surprisingly supported by the British press. The correspondent for the Pottery and Glass Trades Journal in his review of the exhibition did not mince words:
"The pâte-sur-pâte painting of M. Solon [for Minton] completely places in the shade any of the royal manufactory [Sèvres] ........ The Sèvres pâte-sur-pâte is deficient in sharpness and relief, especially when viewed at a distance of a few feet, when it has the appearance of a nearly opaque body upon a dark ground, and there is an absence of all muscular development in the figures represented .....
Taxile Doat picked up the gauntlet thrown down by the British press. In this he was aided by the development of a new paste (pâte nouvelle) that would respond better to the layering and carving necessary than did the factory's traditional hard paste recipe. And succeed he did! Doat, in collaboration with Charles Lucas created for the Exposition of 1884 an exquisite vase over three feet tall every bit as detailed and finely layered as a Minton example, with a nymph in diaphanous drapery standing on a plinth amidst panels of foliate scrolls in the manner of Jacques Androuet DuCerceau and grotesques below portrait medallions - a tour de force of technique and design. The vase was well received, and presented to the South Kensington Museum (now known as the Victoria and Albert Museum), a gift of the French government.
Having proved that S©vres was an equal competitor, the French artists took the technique one step further. With sculptors of the caliber of Auguste Rodin working with technicians at the factory, the relief carving and glaze combinations found on the present pâte nouvelle vase of 1889 were perfected.
The vase's description in the caption to the illustration as decorated '..in paste relief and engraving' underscores the difference in pâte-sur-pâte technique as developed by Louis Marc Solon and practiced since the third quarter at Minton and as developed by Doat and practiced at Sèvres in the fourth quarter of the 19th century - the difference between layering white slip on a coloured ground and moulding, building up with paste, and carving away the surface then coloring it.
For years, the two firms had maintained close ties, with artists from Sèvres coming across the Channel to work in Stoke-on-Trent. Indeed, the French sculptor Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse worked at Minton 1850-1855 and was in no small way responsible for the English firm's successful 'coming out' as a porcelain manufactury of international standing at the Crystal Palace exhibition of 1851. He was responsible for designing the forms for lots 135 and 138 in the present sale, both important Minton pâte-sur-pâte vases decorated by Louis Marc Solon. Solon had arrived from Sèvres just after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and is credited with developing the factory's production of pâte-sur-pâte.
By the time of the Exposition Universelle of 1878, the student had surpassed the teacher, and the public's perception was that the Minton's pâte-sur-pâte was superior to that at Sèvres - an impression not surprisingly supported by the British press. The correspondent for the Pottery and Glass Trades Journal in his review of the exhibition did not mince words:
"The pâte-sur-pâte painting of M. Solon [for Minton] completely places in the shade any of the royal manufactory [Sèvres] ........ The Sèvres pâte-sur-pâte is deficient in sharpness and relief, especially when viewed at a distance of a few feet, when it has the appearance of a nearly opaque body upon a dark ground, and there is an absence of all muscular development in the figures represented .....
Taxile Doat picked up the gauntlet thrown down by the British press. In this he was aided by the development of a new paste (pâte nouvelle) that would respond better to the layering and carving necessary than did the factory's traditional hard paste recipe. And succeed he did! Doat, in collaboration with Charles Lucas created for the Exposition of 1884 an exquisite vase over three feet tall every bit as detailed and finely layered as a Minton example, with a nymph in diaphanous drapery standing on a plinth amidst panels of foliate scrolls in the manner of Jacques Androuet DuCerceau and grotesques below portrait medallions - a tour de force of technique and design. The vase was well received, and presented to the South Kensington Museum (now known as the Victoria and Albert Museum), a gift of the French government.
Having proved that S©vres was an equal competitor, the French artists took the technique one step further. With sculptors of the caliber of Auguste Rodin working with technicians at the factory, the relief carving and glaze combinations found on the present pâte nouvelle vase of 1889 were perfected.