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Lot Essay
The C couronné poinçon was a tax mark applied to alloys containing copper, between March 1745 and February 1749.
The fashion for transforming exotic and expensive Chinese porcelain into true 'objets de luxe' with the addition of rich gilt-bronze mounts reached its zenith through the activities of marchands-mercier such as Lazare Duvaux. The popularity for mounting porcelain became such that eventually the cost of the mounts began to outrun the value of the porcelain which it adorned. The Livre-Journal of Duvaux for 1751 notes that Madame de Pompadour paid the extraordinary sum of 1,680 Livres for a pair of ormolu-mounted celadon ewers. The detail with which such rich objects were described in contemporary sale catalogues during the second half of the 18th century, in contrast to the more generalised descriptions of (unmounted) Chinese porcelain found in earlier inventories, demonstrates the regard in which such objects were held.
This 'pittoresque' vase illustrates the marchand-mercier's involvement in design through assembly, a practice discussed in depth by C. Sargentson in Merchants and Luxury Markets: The Marchands Merciers of Eighteenth-Century Paris, London, 1996. The old Chinese porcelain and Régence and contemporary gilt-bronze fixtures that form this vase were clearly assembled from disparate elements found in the mercier's stock. The privilege to keep such a range of material, not to mention the compounded right to assemble them in such a whimsical manner, was one of the luxuries granted to the merciers guild in their corporate statutes.
Thomas-Joachim Hébert, the celebrated marchand-mercier active in Paris during the first half of the 18th century, had two related table-fountains in stock when his expanding business was inventoried in 1724: one, composed of a cylindrical red and green coloured Chinese porcelain vase mounted in gilt-bronze, was valued at 120 livres; the other was a slightly smaller version of Japanese porcelain mounted in silver. Such pot-pourri vases were conceived to dispense scented 'pot pourri' - while table-fountains contrastingly issued perfumed water, wine, coffee or tea.
BARON HENRI DE ROTHSCHILD (1872-1946)
The son of Nathan James and grandson of James, nephew of Arthur and brother of Baronne Leonino, he married Mathilde Sophie Henriette von Weissweiller (1872-1926) in 1895 and they had three children - James-Henri, Nadine and Philippe. He trained as a physician and though he never practised as a doctor, financed many hospitals and much medical research, including that of Pierre and Marie Curie. He was a prolific writer - penning several medical works and travel memoirs - and, under the pseudonyms André Pascal and Charles des Fontaines, he expressed his passion for theatre, publishing numerous plays. He was also a passionate collector of paintings by the French Old Master Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (1699-1779), publishing a monograph on the artist in 1931, by which time he apparently owned a total of thirty-three works, almost a sixth of the artist's entire oeuvre. At the outbreak of war he sent the paintings to England for safe-keeping, but tragically many of these were destroyed by a German bomb when stored in Bath during the war. The Rothschild Chardin collection was recently the subject of an exhibition held by Lord Rothschild at Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire (March-July 2012).
The owner of the château de Mouton and a grand hôtel in the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Henri de Rothschild was the builder of the château de la Muette, which was furnished in part by Ruhlmann and has been the headquarters of OECD since 1953. Chinese turquoise porcelain was clearly a passion for Baron Henri and in the 1977 sale in which this vase was sold a group of twenty-two other turquoise wares from his collection was offered, including three other similar groups featuring central vases flanked by pairs of either Fo dogs or parrots enriched by ormolu mounts.
The fashion for transforming exotic and expensive Chinese porcelain into true 'objets de luxe' with the addition of rich gilt-bronze mounts reached its zenith through the activities of marchands-mercier such as Lazare Duvaux. The popularity for mounting porcelain became such that eventually the cost of the mounts began to outrun the value of the porcelain which it adorned. The Livre-Journal of Duvaux for 1751 notes that Madame de Pompadour paid the extraordinary sum of 1,680 Livres for a pair of ormolu-mounted celadon ewers. The detail with which such rich objects were described in contemporary sale catalogues during the second half of the 18th century, in contrast to the more generalised descriptions of (unmounted) Chinese porcelain found in earlier inventories, demonstrates the regard in which such objects were held.
This 'pittoresque' vase illustrates the marchand-mercier's involvement in design through assembly, a practice discussed in depth by C. Sargentson in Merchants and Luxury Markets: The Marchands Merciers of Eighteenth-Century Paris, London, 1996. The old Chinese porcelain and Régence and contemporary gilt-bronze fixtures that form this vase were clearly assembled from disparate elements found in the mercier's stock. The privilege to keep such a range of material, not to mention the compounded right to assemble them in such a whimsical manner, was one of the luxuries granted to the merciers guild in their corporate statutes.
Thomas-Joachim Hébert, the celebrated marchand-mercier active in Paris during the first half of the 18th century, had two related table-fountains in stock when his expanding business was inventoried in 1724: one, composed of a cylindrical red and green coloured Chinese porcelain vase mounted in gilt-bronze, was valued at 120 livres; the other was a slightly smaller version of Japanese porcelain mounted in silver. Such pot-pourri vases were conceived to dispense scented 'pot pourri' - while table-fountains contrastingly issued perfumed water, wine, coffee or tea.
BARON HENRI DE ROTHSCHILD (1872-1946)
The son of Nathan James and grandson of James, nephew of Arthur and brother of Baronne Leonino, he married Mathilde Sophie Henriette von Weissweiller (1872-1926) in 1895 and they had three children - James-Henri, Nadine and Philippe. He trained as a physician and though he never practised as a doctor, financed many hospitals and much medical research, including that of Pierre and Marie Curie. He was a prolific writer - penning several medical works and travel memoirs - and, under the pseudonyms André Pascal and Charles des Fontaines, he expressed his passion for theatre, publishing numerous plays. He was also a passionate collector of paintings by the French Old Master Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (1699-1779), publishing a monograph on the artist in 1931, by which time he apparently owned a total of thirty-three works, almost a sixth of the artist's entire oeuvre. At the outbreak of war he sent the paintings to England for safe-keeping, but tragically many of these were destroyed by a German bomb when stored in Bath during the war. The Rothschild Chardin collection was recently the subject of an exhibition held by Lord Rothschild at Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire (March-July 2012).
The owner of the château de Mouton and a grand hôtel in the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Henri de Rothschild was the builder of the château de la Muette, which was furnished in part by Ruhlmann and has been the headquarters of OECD since 1953. Chinese turquoise porcelain was clearly a passion for Baron Henri and in the 1977 sale in which this vase was sold a group of twenty-two other turquoise wares from his collection was offered, including three other similar groups featuring central vases flanked by pairs of either Fo dogs or parrots enriched by ormolu mounts.