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Lot Essay
The C couronné poinçon was a tax mark employed on any alloy containing copper between March 1745 and February 1749.
The gilt-bronze mounts of the Wildenstein vase were undoubtedly executed in the same workshop as the pair in the Wallace Collection, London. Also stamped with the C couronné poinçon, the Wallace vases were acquired in the Monvoison sale, 20-21 January 1845, lot 5. Discussed by Peter Hughes in The Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Furniture III, London, 1996, no.278, F104, the Wallace vases are of Meissen porcelain with Watteauesque vignettes.
Although traditionally associated with Jacques Caffiéri (1678-1755), Hughes (ibid.) raised considerable doubts over the authenticity of the bird surmounting the handle on the Wallace vases, which although also stamped with the C couronné poinçon, he felt displayed a different character to the rest of the mounts. This conclusion may now need to be reconsidered in the light of the Wildenstein vase - which displays the same character of mounts - and in particular the ho-ho bird - on Meissen porcelain of the same date, with mounts also stamped with the C couronné poinçon. The Wildenstein vase does not, however, display the visually apparent discrepancy between the chasing of the bird and the rest of the mounts of the Wallace vase, so perhaps the Wallace birds are a later association or replacement.
That this type of Ho-Ho bird did exist in the repertoire of mounts executed by an unidentified bronzier for Meissen porcelain circa 1745-49 is again confirmed by the pair of extremely closely related ewers with the C couronné poinçon advertised by the Antique Porcelain Company, The Connoisseur, CXCIX, October 1978, p.5.
The gilt-bronze mounts of the Wildenstein vase were undoubtedly executed in the same workshop as the pair in the Wallace Collection, London. Also stamped with the C couronné poinçon, the Wallace vases were acquired in the Monvoison sale, 20-21 January 1845, lot 5. Discussed by Peter Hughes in The Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Furniture III, London, 1996, no.278, F104, the Wallace vases are of Meissen porcelain with Watteauesque vignettes.
Although traditionally associated with Jacques Caffiéri (1678-1755), Hughes (ibid.) raised considerable doubts over the authenticity of the bird surmounting the handle on the Wallace vases, which although also stamped with the C couronné poinçon, he felt displayed a different character to the rest of the mounts. This conclusion may now need to be reconsidered in the light of the Wildenstein vase - which displays the same character of mounts - and in particular the ho-ho bird - on Meissen porcelain of the same date, with mounts also stamped with the C couronné poinçon. The Wildenstein vase does not, however, display the visually apparent discrepancy between the chasing of the bird and the rest of the mounts of the Wallace vase, so perhaps the Wallace birds are a later association or replacement.
That this type of Ho-Ho bird did exist in the repertoire of mounts executed by an unidentified bronzier for Meissen porcelain circa 1745-49 is again confirmed by the pair of extremely closely related ewers with the C couronné poinçon advertised by the Antique Porcelain Company, The Connoisseur, CXCIX, October 1978, p.5.