AN EXHIBITION ORMOLU-MOUNTED SEVRES (REPUBLIQUE FRANÇAIS) PORCELAIN PATE D’APPLICATION BLUE-GROUND VASE (VASE 'CLODION’, 1RE GRANDEUR), 'LA BALANÇOIRE'

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AN EXHIBITION ORMOLU-MOUNTED SEVRES (REPUBLIQUE FRANÇAIS) PORCELAIN PATE D’APPLICATION BLUE-GROUND VASE (VASE 'CLODION’, 1RE GRANDEUR), 'LA BALANÇOIRE'

DATED 1875-77, GREEN LOZENGE S.(18)76 AND IRON-RED RF MONOGRAM DÉCORE À SÈVRES (18)77 MARKS, INCISED CR 75 8, THE GILDING BY BLANCHARD, SIGNED GOB R FOR A.T. GOBERT

Details

AN EXHIBITION ORMOLU-MOUNTED SEVRES (REPUBLIQUE FRANÇAIS) PORCELAIN PATE D’APPLICATION BLUE-GROUND VASE (VASE 'CLODION’, 1RE GRANDEUR), 'LA BALANÇOIRE'
DATED 1875-77, GREEN LOZENGE S.(18)76 AND IRON-RED RF MONOGRAM DÉCORE À SÈVRES (18)77 MARKS, INCISED CR 75 8, THE GILDING BY BLANCHARD, SIGNED GOB R FOR A.T. GOBERT
Of shield shape, the short waisted neck gilt with anthemion and stylized foliate forms, flanked by upright bracket handles cast with paired duck-heads at the rim, finely painted and hand-tooled in white slip with an amorous couple, likely Cupid and Psyche, standing on a swing constructed from Cupid's bow, the bow strung between two flowering branches supporting six putti, the reverse with a triumphant Cupid balancing on the string
30 ¾ in. (78.1 cm.) high

Provenance

Entered the Saleroom 31 March 1878, valued at 4200 francs.
Lent to the Postal Ministry, 1878 [Vaa5, fol. 232 vo, 59.14].
The Estate of Wilfred Swall, Part III; Sotheby’s, New York, 18 June 1983, lot 125.

Literature

Catalogue officiel des produits exposés par les manufactures nationales – Sèvres, Les Gobelins, Beauvais, Paris, 1878, p. 8, no. 27.
M. Lameire, Rapport addresé a M. Le Minstère de L'Instruction Publique, des Cultes et des Beaux-Arts sur Les Porcelains Modernes qui ont figuré L'Exposition Universelle de 1878, Paris, 1879, p. 44, no. 27.

Exhibited

Paris, Universelle Exposition, 1878, no. 57 [Vr, 1e scric, No 2, fol. 359].

Lot Essay

In their comments regarding the 1878 Paris Exposition Universelle, the present vase was noted as particularly "remarkable" by the scholarly journal, The Scientific Review: "Parmi les pièces remarquables décorées avec le procédé de la barbotine, nous citerons surtout les différents vases de M. Gobert, l'artiste au talent souple et gracieux dans ses compositions allégoriques des Saisons, dans son vase des Éléments et dans celui qu'il a appelé la Balançoire..." See La Revue Scientifique de la France et de L'Éstranger, July 1878 - January 1879, 2nd series, vol. 15, p. 513, no. VII. The Elements Vase, another of A.T. Gobert's masterworks noted here, is currently in the Musée National de Ceramique, Sèvres, France.

Alfred Thompson Gobert, employed at Sèvres 1849-1893, is originally recorded as an enameller working on copper in the Renaissance Limoges style and then as a pâte-sur-pâte artist. In 1887 Gobert was named Director of the Works of Art Department and in 1892 as Director of the Painting Department, [peintre 1849-1887; directeur des travaux d'art 1887-1891; peinture 1892-1893]. For another Sèvres vase of this form with pâte-sur-pâte decoration by M.L. Solon titled Combats d’Amours, see B. Bumpus, Pâte-sur-Pâte, The Art of Ceramic Relief Decoration, 1849-1992, London, 1992, pp. 24-25.

Louis-Etienne-Frédéric Blanchard is recorded at the Sèvres manufactory from 1848-1880 as a painter and gilder.

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