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Lot Essay
The present ice-pails and covers have been a fascinating mystery since they first appeared in the Elisabeth Parke Firestone sale of 1991, described as a pair of rafraichissoirs and a pair of covers, with period decoration circa 1769 by Pierre jeune and with a footnote that read “Although the painting and ground exactly matches on the bases and covers, this combined form would seem to be unrecorded in the literature”.
Ice-pails, by definition, need the more commonly found deep covers in order to hold the upper layer of ice that allows them to serve their purpose. Yet the present shallow domed covers are of the same soft paste and are identically painted and gilt as are the footed bracket-handled basins on which they rest. All components have been tested with XRF and found to have the same formulation for copper green and the same chemical make-up for the gilding – formulas attributable to 18th century facture. There is, therefore, no reason to think that these covers and basins were not created together, modern science having reconfirmed the connoisseurship of twenty-four years ago.
Jean-Jacques Pierre le jeune was active at Sèvres from 1763 to 1800 as a gilder and painter of flowers and patterns.
Ice-pails, by definition, need the more commonly found deep covers in order to hold the upper layer of ice that allows them to serve their purpose. Yet the present shallow domed covers are of the same soft paste and are identically painted and gilt as are the footed bracket-handled basins on which they rest. All components have been tested with XRF and found to have the same formulation for copper green and the same chemical make-up for the gilding – formulas attributable to 18th century facture. There is, therefore, no reason to think that these covers and basins were not created together, modern science having reconfirmed the connoisseurship of twenty-four years ago.
Jean-Jacques Pierre le jeune was active at Sèvres from 1763 to 1800 as a gilder and painter of flowers and patterns.