Lot Essay
Whilst the exact 18th century provenance of this broc is not certain, examination of the contemporary records reveals two possible leads. The sales ledgers in the Sèvres archives record, on 31 December 1753 (Vy 1 fol. 29) delivered to Lazare Duvaux:
1 broc 3e grandeur lapis et or oiseaux a terasse 144 (livres)
Madame de Pompadour was buying Vincennes and Sèvres porcelain from the factory directly but also through Duvaux. The Livre Joural de Lazare Duvaux records, on 16 March 1754: 1711 Mme la Marq. de Pompadour: (...) deux brocs, lapis & or, à 120 l., 240 l.
A posthumous inventory of Madame de Pompadour's chattels taken in 1764 (published by Jean Cordey, Inventaire des biens de Madame de Pompadour: rédigé après son décés, 1939), it records, in a group of porcelain brought back from the château de Saint-Ouen to the Hôtel de Pompadour:
1319 - Un broc bleu lapis à oyseaux; prisé quarante livres...XL, including possibly the first one mentioned in the archives at 144 livres.
A very similar broc is in the collection of The Philadelphia Museum of Art, the gift of Mrs. Morris Hawkes, 1942, together with a slightly later basin. The similarities of form, size and decoration to the present example are striking and it may form the companion to the present jug as mentioned in the Livre Journal de Lazare Duvaux, no. 1711. Both with a very elaborate gilded decoration which would correspond to the high value of 144 livres and the precised description of oiseaux a terasse.
The images of plaster models retained at the Sèvres factory archives are reproduced courtesy of Sèvres-Cité de la Céramique Archives.
1 broc 3
Madame de Pompadour was buying Vincennes and Sèvres porcelain from the factory directly but also through Duvaux. The Livre Joural de Lazare Duvaux records, on 16 March 1754: 1711 Mme la Marq. de Pompadour: (...) deux brocs, lapis & or, à 120 l., 240 l.
A posthumous inventory of Madame de Pompadour's chattels taken in 1764 (published by Jean Cordey, Inventaire des biens de Madame de Pompadour: rédigé après son décés, 1939), it records, in a group of porcelain brought back from the château de Saint-Ouen to the Hôtel de Pompadour:
1319 - Un broc bleu lapis à oyseaux; prisé quarante livres...XL, including possibly the first one mentioned in the archives at 144 livres.
A very similar broc is in the collection of The Philadelphia Museum of Art, the gift of Mrs. Morris Hawkes, 1942, together with a slightly later basin. The similarities of form, size and decoration to the present example are striking and it may form the companion to the present jug as mentioned in the Livre Journal de Lazare Duvaux, no. 1711. Both with a very elaborate gilded decoration which would correspond to the high value of 144 livres and the precised description of oiseaux a terasse.
The images of plaster models retained at the Sèvres factory archives are reproduced courtesy of Sèvres-Cité de la Céramique Archives.