CIRCA 1815

Details

A PAIR OF PARIS PORCELAIN GOLD-GROUND TWO-HANDLED SLENDER URN-SHAPED VASES
CIRCA 1815
With burnished and matt-gilt caryatid handles, one painted with Paul and Virginia in a cradle, the other with the infants standing by a well before two ladies, within tapering rectangular panels, the burnished gilt-ground decorated with matt, chased and raised gilding, the reverse with a roundel of caryatids below flower-baskets, above wyverns supporting plinths suspending pendant drapery swags surmounted by burning braziers and trophies below Cupids, the shoulders and lower parts similarly decorated with putti at play, the shoulders with applied bands of white biscuit porcelain flowers and beaded bands, the tall flaring necks decorated with oval panels of maidens above clouds, the necks and feet with bands of fruiting vines, supported on square polished slate bases, minor chipping and losses to flowers, small chip to one handle, minor chipping to edge of bases
22 5/8 in. (52.5 cm.) high (2)

Provenance

Purchased by George Byng Esq. M.P. (d.1847) in Paris 1820 and by descent.

Literature

'List of Furniture, Porcelain, Paintings & C., purchased by George Byng Esq., for Wrotham Park, 1816-43', '1820 Paris 2 Vases White and Gold - 100 Francs or £ 0s 0d'
Wrotham Park 1847 Inventory, 'SECOND DRAWING ROOM A pair of painted and gilt French china vases 21in. high'
Strafford Furniture Inventory, circa 1918, 'WROTHAM PARK- BOUDOIR 4.4.0 Pair of richly gilt 21' vases with figures and raisd flowers'

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The scenes depicted on the present lot are most likely derived form Paul et Virginie, the most celebrated work of Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737-1814). Bernardin, a noted writer, academic and botanist, spent his years in army service as an engineer on the island of Mauritius which inspired his first literary work Voyage á l'Ile de France (1773). The island again provided a setting for his 1787 novel which explored innocence, purity, love and harmony with nature.

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