Lot Essay
These vases are an evolution of the vase à monter, i.e. a range of vases made specifically with the intention of being embelished with ormolu mounts. The design of the form for the present vases is kept the Sèvres archive retain designs as well as a plaster model, see Geoffrey de Bellaigue, French Porcelain in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen (London, 2009), Vol. II, p. 491. On two of the three designs we find mention of Tomire and Thomire, the first design is dated March 1785 and the second variant is dated July 1786. The present vase is closer to the earlier design.
Only two such pairs of vases with red figure decoration are recorded in the literature, and both are mounted as candelabra with ormolu mounts attributed to Thomier, one pair in the Palais Royal, Madrid, the mounts are both marked for Thomire and dated 1790 and 1791, see Pierre Verlet, Les bronzes dorés français du XVIIIe siècle , (Paris, 1999), p. 47, pl. 41. Another pair, supported by biscuit figures by Louis Simon Boizot, formerly in the Rothschild collection, Mentmore Towers and sold from the Léon Levy Collection, Sotheby's, Paris, 2 October 2008, lot 48.
The present vases are difficult to trace through the archives as the form is either referd to as vase à monter or pièce d'ornement which appear frequently in the records. One reference from the archives may point to these vases, see Ct. X. de Chavagnac and Mis. de Grollier, Histoire des Manufactures Françaises de Porcelaine (Paris, 1906), p. 214:
A M. Thomire: Deux vases des Cariatides, 168 l.
Total pour 1788: 402,205 l. 9s.
The Sèvres Archives Registre des Travaux extraordinaires des Peintres contains two entries which may also refer to the present vases, the first, in November 1787:
Asselin: 2 vases figures étrusques à 30 livres pièces 60L
and then in December 1787 (the payment being recorded in January 1788): 2 vases figures étrusques à 30L pièces 60L, see Geoffrey de Bellaigue, French Porcelain in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen (London, 2009), Vol. I, p. 36.
Charles-Eloi Asselin was a painter of figures and patterns active at Sèvres from 1765 to 1800 and as one of the foremost figure painters at the works may well have undertaken such pieces.
Only two such pairs of vases with red figure decoration are recorded in the literature, and both are mounted as candelabra with ormolu mounts attributed to Thomier, one pair in the Palais Royal, Madrid, the mounts are both marked for Thomire and dated 1790 and 1791, see Pierre Verlet, Les bronzes dorés français du XVIII
The present vases are difficult to trace through the archives as the form is either referd to as vase à monter or pièce d'ornement which appear frequently in the records. One reference from the archives may point to these vases, see Ct. X. de Chavagnac and Mis. de Grollier, Histoire des Manufactures Françaises de Porcelaine (Paris, 1906), p. 214:
A M. Thomire: Deux vases des Cariatides, 168 l.
Total pour 1788: 402,205 l. 9s.
The Sèvres Archives Registre des Travaux extraordinaires des Peintres contains two entries which may also refer to the present vases, the first, in November 1787:
Asselin: 2 vases figures étrusques à 30 livres pièces 60L
and then in December 1787 (the payment being recorded in January 1788): 2 vases figures étrusques à 30L pièces 60L, see Geoffrey de Bellaigue, French Porcelain in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen (London, 2009), Vol. I, p. 36.
Charles-Eloi Asselin was a painter of figures and patterns active at Sèvres from 1765 to 1800 and as one of the foremost figure painters at the works may well have undertaken such pieces.