THE PORCELAIN KANGXI (1662 - 1722), THE MOUNTS CIRCA 1755

With its vigorous and naturalistically-modelled scrolling foliage, this pots-pourris vase reflects the Louis XV 'pittoresque' style promoted by marchands-merciers such as Lazare Duvaux. As his Livre-Journal testifies, the latter sold vases of this general form as early as 6 December 1751 to the Marquise de Pompadour, as well as Deux pots pourris céladon, montés en bronze doré d'or moulu 288 livres to the comtesse de Bentleim on 15 December 1756. Duvaux is known to have employed the bronzier Jean-Claude Duplessis to mount Chinese porcelain - such as the vase sold to the marquise de Voyer on 21 August 1753: La Monture en cuivre ciselé d'un vase du porcelaine bleu, payée à M. Duplessis- but any firm attribution to a specific bronzier is unsustainable, both Thomas Germain and Jacques Caffiéri having also been suggested as possible authors of this form of mounted vase.

Related ormolu-mounted celadon porcelain pots-pourris vases, stamped with the C couronné poinçon but of slightly larger size, include the single vase sold by the Trustees of the Luton Hoo Foundation, Christie's, London, 9 June 1994, lot 32; a pair in the J. Paul Getty Museum (F.J.B. Watson and G. Wilson, Mounted Oriental Porcelain in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1982, no. 10, pp. 53 - 57); and a pair in the Palace of the Legion of Honour, San Francisco (D. F. Lunsingh Scheuleer, Chinesisches und japanisches Porzellan in europaïschen Fassungen, Braunschweig, 1980, p. 323, no. 304).