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Lot Essay
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
Pierre Verlet, Sèvres, Le XVIII Siècle, Paris, 1954, pp. 201-201, planche 20.
Svend Eriksen, The David Collection, French Porcelain, Copenhagen, 1980, pp. 43, 66-67, figs. 43-44.
Svend Eriksen & Geoffrey de Bellaigue, Sèvres Porcelain, Vincennes and Sèvres 1740-1800, London, 1987, pp. 298-299, no. 109.
Sir Geoffrey de Bellaigue, "Sèvres", J. Pierpont Morgan, Collector, Wadsworth Atheneum, 1987, pp. 168-169, no. 61.
Tamara Préaud and Antoine d'Albis, La Porcelaine de Vincennes, Paris, 1991, p. 191, no. 228.
Alvar Gonzalez-Palacios, Il patrimonio artistico del Quirinale, Gli Arredi Francesi, Milan, 1995, p. 93, nos. 102, 103.
Linda H. Roth and Clare Le Corbeiller, French Eighteenth Century Porcelain at the Wadsworth Atheneum, The J. Pierpont Morgan Collection, Wadsworth Atheneum, 2000, pp. 300-306, no. 15.
Marie-Laure de Rochebrune, "La passion de madame de Pompadour pour la porcelaine", Madame de Pompadour et les arts, Musée des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, 2002, pp. 406-419.
Rosalind Savill, "Les porcelains de Sèvres de madame de Pompadour dans les collections anglaises et américaines", Madame de Pompadour et les arts, Musée des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, 2002, pp. 420-433.
The identification of the present fountain and basin as the example made for madame de Pompadour, mistress of Louis XV and patron of the arts, is based on an analysis of contemporary manufacturing and sales records. She is recorded as owning two French (i.e. Vincennes or Sèvres) porcelain fountains and three-hundred and one pieces of Vincennes and Sèvres painted with flowers on a white ground (See J. Terrasson, Madame de Pompadour et la création de la 'Porcelaine de France', La Bibliothèque des Arts, Paris, pp. 135, 136.)
The Vincennes/Sèvres sales records for 1 October - 31 December 1755 note the sale of a fountain and basin painted with flower garlands to Lazard Duvaux for 600 livres (fig. 3). The description reads:
1 fontaine ......... fleur Guirlandes
1 Cuvette .......... id(em) 600.
This entry must certainly refer to the present fountain and basin, the only known example with such an early date letter and the only known example as richly painted with garlands of flowers and as heavily mounted.
Lazard Duvaux's daybook entry for December 1755 under item 2336 notes the sale to Mme de Pompadour of a quantity of Vincennes porcelain. The first item listed corresponds to the aforementioned purchase:
2336. Mme la Marq. de POMPADOUR: Une fontaine fond blanc à fleurs, & sa cuvette peinte de même, 600 l.
On 28 January 1756, he notes as item 2391 the mounting in silver-gilt for Mme de Pompadour of a fountain, presumably the same example acquired unmounted from the factory the previous month.
2391.Du 28. -- Mme la Marq. de POMPADOUR: La monture en argent
doré d'une fontaine......
Very few of this elaborate model were made, and most were royal commissions or associated with Versailles and sold through Lazard Duvaux. The working drawing (fig. 2), preserved at Sèvres along with the plaster model (fig. 1), is inscribed in the hand of Jean-Claude Duplessis fontaine pour Mme la daufine fait du 6 Mars 1754, indicating that the model may have originally been conceived by him for Louis XV's daughter-in-law Marie-Josèphe de Saxe, daughter of Augustus the Strong. However, as was often the case, it is Jeanne Poisson, marquise de Pompadour, favorite of the king and instrumental in guiding the monarch's interest in the Vincennes/Sèvres factory, who acquired the first production of a new model.
Duplessis's elegant design incorporates the marine motifs so popular at the time and also associated with the dauphin and dauphine. The spigot is modelled as a dolphin, the finial as a still life of coral, shells and crustaceans, the body of the fountain incised as fish scales, the basin shaped as a shell. A less elaborately moulded version, with no reeds or dolphin spout, was also produced, noted in factory records as a fontaine unie.
The example made for the dauphine alluded to in the inscription on the drawing may be that recorded in Lazard Duvaux's livre journal on 21 April 1756. However, as no description of the porcelain is included, the fountain in question may not necessarily be Vincennes porcelain. The description reads :
2465: S.M.le Roy: La garniture en argent doré d'une fontaine de porcelaine pour Mme la Dauphine 192 l. [For the account of His Majesty the King - the embelishment with silver-gilt of a porcelain fountain at 192 livres].
An entry dated 29 August 1756 describes a third fountain, this one destined for her husband, the dauphin :
2575 : Fontaine de Vincennes peinte en blanc & bleu, la garniture en vermeil [a fountain in Vincennes (porcelain) painted in blue and white and mounted in silver-gilt] at a cost of 720 livres (600 livres plus 120 livres for the mounts?).
Either entry could correspond to two extant examples marked with date letter C for 1755/1756, mounted in silver-gilt, and painted in blue: the fontaine à roseaux now in the David Collection, Copenhagen [acquired from the collection of the Marquess of Lincolnshire, sold Christie's, London, 5 December 1928, lot 72 (#441 to Founès)] painted with flower garlands and palms forming the royal cypher of interlaced L's above the dolphin's head and with mounts identical to those on the Pompadour example; or the less elaborately moulded fontaine unie from the collection of J. Pierpont Morgan [acquired from Galerie Jacques Seligman & Cie., Paris, 22 May 1903], now in that of the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, painted after François Boucher with Les Pescheurs - small boys fishing in a landscape. This fountain is without question the example also listed as sold to Lazard Duvaud in the last quarter of 1755, described as a fountain decorated in monochrome with children, their skin tones enriched in color:
1 fontaine Enfans cam. Chaires colo. encadri....
1 jatte idem .....................................600.R
In her thorough catalogue entry for the Wadsworth Atheneum's fountain and later basin, Linda Roth discusses in detail the Hartford and Copenhagen fountains as well as other extant examples, carefully laying out various possibilities of ownership in an attempt to solidify the provenance of the pieces in her care. At the time of writing, she was unaware of the existence of the present example.
As Duplessis's drawing for a fontaine à roseaux includes a reference to the Dauphine, and as mounts on her piece were 72 livres more expensive and - by extension - more elaborate than those on her husband's fountain, it seems reasonable to conclude that, of the two examples recorded as decorated in blue, the fontaine à roseaux now in Copenhagen belonged to the Dauphine and the fontaine unie now in Hartford to the Dauphin. However, Ms. Roth points out some interesting contradictions that make it impossible to confirm this with certainty.
One glitch is the fact that such fountains and basins were traditionally placed in the garde-robes, a room that, for royalty, by the mid-18th century had evolved into a comfortable and finely appointed chamber in which the furnishings often matched the decorations. It is known that, in 1756 - the year he acquired a blue and white fountain and basin - the Dauphin redecorated his apartments at Versailles in the same color scheme. His wife chose a completely different color scheme of green, grey, yellow and rose/orange on a cream ground for her chambers. However, the color scheme of her bathing room or Pièce des Bains is not known. Perhaps it, too, was blue and white?
Aside from the two à roseaux and one unie examples already discussed, the following examples are extant, bringing to six the combined total of fountains for which a location can be confirmed:
The fontaine à roseaux and basin from the collection of the duke and duchesse of Parma, painted in colors with bouquets of flowers, a single garland suspended from the rim, marked with interlaced L's enclosing at the top the painter's mark of a V for an unidentified flower painter, the dolphin spout with a silver-gilt pin similar to that on both the present example and that in the David Collection. It is recorded as having entered the collection by the beginning of 1757 and remains in the Pinocoteca, Parma.
The fontaine unie of 1757 painted in blue with flowers held in the collection of the Musée national de la Céramique at Sèvres but now lacking its basin. Could this possibly be the second fountain noted in Mme de Pompadour's inventory?
A fontaine unie and basin dated 1788 were sold to Louis XVI's sister, Madame Elisabeth, for 144 livres with mounts costing a further 78 livres. A replacement basin was purchased by Madame the following year for 84 livres. These are likely the gilt white examples in the Mansfield Collection at Scone Palace in Perthshire, Scotland.
Unlocated is the bleu céleste fountain and basin of 1758, a gift of Louis XV to Marie-Theresa of Austria. At 848 livres, it was by far the most expensive produced, the expense attributable to the colored ground.
To recap, only seven or eight Vincennes or Sèvres fountains and basins are noted in the factory records. Of these, most were produced between 1754 and 1758, most were sold through Lazard Duvaux, and most were acquired either by the royal family, by those closely allied with it, or as diplomatic gifts. Of the extant examples, all but the present fountain and basin are either in public collections or in private collections from which they will likely never be sold.
The present fontaine à roseaux et cuvette, marked with date letter B for 1754-1755, painted with garlands of flowers, and mounted in silver-gilt, must be the one delivered by Lazard Duvaux to Jeanne Poisson, la marquise de Pompadour, in January of 1756. It is the only set to come on the open market since Christie's sold the example now in the David Collection nearly eighty years ago. It will likely be the last available for public purchase.
Pierre Verlet, Sèvres, Le XVIII Siècle, Paris, 1954, pp. 201-201, planche 20.
Svend Eriksen, The David Collection, French Porcelain, Copenhagen, 1980, pp. 43, 66-67, figs. 43-44.
Svend Eriksen & Geoffrey de Bellaigue, Sèvres Porcelain, Vincennes and Sèvres 1740-1800, London, 1987, pp. 298-299, no. 109.
Sir Geoffrey de Bellaigue, "Sèvres", J. Pierpont Morgan, Collector, Wadsworth Atheneum, 1987, pp. 168-169, no. 61.
Tamara Préaud and Antoine d'Albis, La Porcelaine de Vincennes, Paris, 1991, p. 191, no. 228.
Alvar Gonzalez-Palacios, Il patrimonio artistico del Quirinale, Gli Arredi Francesi, Milan, 1995, p. 93, nos. 102, 103.
Linda H. Roth and Clare Le Corbeiller, French Eighteenth Century Porcelain at the Wadsworth Atheneum, The J. Pierpont Morgan Collection, Wadsworth Atheneum, 2000, pp. 300-306, no. 15.
Marie-Laure de Rochebrune, "La passion de madame de Pompadour pour la porcelaine", Madame de Pompadour et les arts, Musée des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, 2002, pp. 406-419.
Rosalind Savill, "Les porcelains de Sèvres de madame de Pompadour dans les collections anglaises et américaines", Madame de Pompadour et les arts, Musée des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, 2002, pp. 420-433.
The identification of the present fountain and basin as the example made for madame de Pompadour, mistress of Louis XV and patron of the arts, is based on an analysis of contemporary manufacturing and sales records. She is recorded as owning two French (i.e. Vincennes or Sèvres) porcelain fountains and three-hundred and one pieces of Vincennes and Sèvres painted with flowers on a white ground (See J. Terrasson, Madame de Pompadour et la création de la 'Porcelaine de France', La Bibliothèque des Arts, Paris, pp. 135, 136.)
The Vincennes/Sèvres sales records for 1 October - 31 December 1755 note the sale of a fountain and basin painted with flower garlands to Lazard Duvaux for 600 livres (fig. 3). The description reads:
1 fontaine ......... fleur Guirlandes
1 Cuvette .......... id(em) 600.
This entry must certainly refer to the present fountain and basin, the only known example with such an early date letter and the only known example as richly painted with garlands of flowers and as heavily mounted.
Lazard Duvaux's daybook entry for December 1755 under item 2336 notes the sale to Mme de Pompadour of a quantity of Vincennes porcelain. The first item listed corresponds to the aforementioned purchase:
2336. Mme la Marq. de POMPADOUR: Une fontaine fond blanc à fleurs, & sa cuvette peinte de même, 600 l.
On 28 January 1756, he notes as item 2391 the mounting in silver-gilt for Mme de Pompadour of a fountain, presumably the same example acquired unmounted from the factory the previous month.
2391.Du 28. -- Mme la Marq. de POMPADOUR: La monture en argent
doré d'une fontaine......
Very few of this elaborate model were made, and most were royal commissions or associated with Versailles and sold through Lazard Duvaux. The working drawing (fig. 2), preserved at Sèvres along with the plaster model (fig. 1), is inscribed in the hand of Jean-Claude Duplessis fontaine pour Mme la daufine fait du 6 Mars 1754, indicating that the model may have originally been conceived by him for Louis XV's daughter-in-law Marie-Josèphe de Saxe, daughter of Augustus the Strong. However, as was often the case, it is Jeanne Poisson, marquise de Pompadour, favorite of the king and instrumental in guiding the monarch's interest in the Vincennes/Sèvres factory, who acquired the first production of a new model.
Duplessis's elegant design incorporates the marine motifs so popular at the time and also associated with the dauphin and dauphine. The spigot is modelled as a dolphin, the finial as a still life of coral, shells and crustaceans, the body of the fountain incised as fish scales, the basin shaped as a shell. A less elaborately moulded version, with no reeds or dolphin spout, was also produced, noted in factory records as a fontaine unie.
The example made for the dauphine alluded to in the inscription on the drawing may be that recorded in Lazard Duvaux's livre journal on 21 April 1756. However, as no description of the porcelain is included, the fountain in question may not necessarily be Vincennes porcelain. The description reads :
2465: S.M.le Roy: La garniture en argent doré d'une fontaine de porcelaine pour Mme la Dauphine 192 l. [For the account of His Majesty the King - the embelishment with silver-gilt of a porcelain fountain at 192 livres].
An entry dated 29 August 1756 describes a third fountain, this one destined for her husband, the dauphin :
2575 : Fontaine de Vincennes peinte en blanc & bleu, la garniture en vermeil [a fountain in Vincennes (porcelain) painted in blue and white and mounted in silver-gilt] at a cost of 720 livres (600 livres plus 120 livres for the mounts?).
Either entry could correspond to two extant examples marked with date letter C for 1755/1756, mounted in silver-gilt, and painted in blue: the fontaine à roseaux now in the David Collection, Copenhagen [acquired from the collection of the Marquess of Lincolnshire, sold Christie's, London, 5 December 1928, lot 72 (#441 to Founès)] painted with flower garlands and palms forming the royal cypher of interlaced L's above the dolphin's head and with mounts identical to those on the Pompadour example; or the less elaborately moulded fontaine unie from the collection of J. Pierpont Morgan [acquired from Galerie Jacques Seligman & Cie., Paris, 22 May 1903], now in that of the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, painted after François Boucher with Les Pescheurs - small boys fishing in a landscape. This fountain is without question the example also listed as sold to Lazard Duvaud in the last quarter of 1755, described as a fountain decorated in monochrome with children, their skin tones enriched in color:
1 fontaine Enfans cam. Chaires colo. encadri....
1 jatte idem .....................................600.R
In her thorough catalogue entry for the Wadsworth Atheneum's fountain and later basin, Linda Roth discusses in detail the Hartford and Copenhagen fountains as well as other extant examples, carefully laying out various possibilities of ownership in an attempt to solidify the provenance of the pieces in her care. At the time of writing, she was unaware of the existence of the present example.
As Duplessis's drawing for a fontaine à roseaux includes a reference to the Dauphine, and as mounts on her piece were 72 livres more expensive and - by extension - more elaborate than those on her husband's fountain, it seems reasonable to conclude that, of the two examples recorded as decorated in blue, the fontaine à roseaux now in Copenhagen belonged to the Dauphine and the fontaine unie now in Hartford to the Dauphin. However, Ms. Roth points out some interesting contradictions that make it impossible to confirm this with certainty.
One glitch is the fact that such fountains and basins were traditionally placed in the garde-robes, a room that, for royalty, by the mid-18th century had evolved into a comfortable and finely appointed chamber in which the furnishings often matched the decorations. It is known that, in 1756 - the year he acquired a blue and white fountain and basin - the Dauphin redecorated his apartments at Versailles in the same color scheme. His wife chose a completely different color scheme of green, grey, yellow and rose/orange on a cream ground for her chambers. However, the color scheme of her bathing room or Pièce des Bains is not known. Perhaps it, too, was blue and white?
Aside from the two à roseaux and one unie examples already discussed, the following examples are extant, bringing to six the combined total of fountains for which a location can be confirmed:
The fontaine à roseaux and basin from the collection of the duke and duchesse of Parma, painted in colors with bouquets of flowers, a single garland suspended from the rim, marked with interlaced L's enclosing at the top the painter's mark of a V for an unidentified flower painter, the dolphin spout with a silver-gilt pin similar to that on both the present example and that in the David Collection. It is recorded as having entered the collection by the beginning of 1757 and remains in the Pinocoteca, Parma.
The fontaine unie of 1757 painted in blue with flowers held in the collection of the Musée national de la Céramique at Sèvres but now lacking its basin. Could this possibly be the second fountain noted in Mme de Pompadour's inventory?
A fontaine unie and basin dated 1788 were sold to Louis XVI's sister, Madame Elisabeth, for 144 livres with mounts costing a further 78 livres. A replacement basin was purchased by Madame the following year for 84 livres. These are likely the gilt white examples in the Mansfield Collection at Scone Palace in Perthshire, Scotland.
Unlocated is the bleu céleste fountain and basin of 1758, a gift of Louis XV to Marie-Theresa of Austria. At 848 livres, it was by far the most expensive produced, the expense attributable to the colored ground.
To recap, only seven or eight Vincennes or Sèvres fountains and basins are noted in the factory records. Of these, most were produced between 1754 and 1758, most were sold through Lazard Duvaux, and most were acquired either by the royal family, by those closely allied with it, or as diplomatic gifts. Of the extant examples, all but the present fountain and basin are either in public collections or in private collections from which they will likely never be sold.
The present fontaine à roseaux et cuvette, marked with date letter B for 1754-1755, painted with garlands of flowers, and mounted in silver-gilt, must be the one delivered by Lazard Duvaux to Jeanne Poisson, la marquise de Pompadour, in January of 1756. It is the only set to come on the open market since Christie's sold the example now in the David Collection nearly eighty years ago. It will likely be the last available for public purchase.