MID-18TH CENTURY

Details

A LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED MEISSEN AND BERLIN PORCELAIN ASSEMBLED CLOCK GARNITURE
MID-18TH CENTURY
The yellow-ground case adapted from a Meissen vase and decorated with indianische Blumen, the central clock bezel set with rhinestones, the later movement by W.T. & Co., the rococo base with Meissen porcelain models of a lion and lioness with her cub, modeled by J.J. Kändler, the ormolu branches mounted with Continental porcelain flowers, the clock surmounted by a Chelsea porcelain model of a finch, the candelabra with central Berlin porcelain models of partridges, the ormolu mounted with further porcelain flowers
13 in. (33 cm.) high, the central clock

Provenance

HRH, Princess Louise, Duchess of Fife, Princess Royal of England, 15 Putnam Square, London, d. 1931.
Acquired from Arthur S. Vernay, New York, June 1932.
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, 1932-60.
The Estate of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, acquired December 1960.

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Lot Essay

The fashion for transforming porcelain with the addition of rich ormolu mounts first emerged at the end of the 17th Century and reached its zenith through the activities of the marchands-merciers in the mid-18th century. It was at this point in time, when the craze for ormolu mounts was at its peak, that the passion for Meissen porcelain at Louis XV's court must have been sparked by the arrival of the Dauphine Marie-Josephe de Saxe, grand daughter of Augustus the Strong, the celebrated founder of the Meissen factory, following her marriage to the Dauphin in 1747. The taste for Meissen at the Royal court is further reflected in the superb group of ormolu-mounted Meissen porcelains bought by Madame Infante, Louis XV's daughter, in the early 1750's, probably from the marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux. These pieces were displayed in her palace at Colorno following her marriage to the Duke of Parma, much of which is now in the Palazzo Quirinale, Rome (see A. González-Palacios, Il Patrimonio Artistico del Quirinale: Gli Arredi Francesi, Milan, 1995, pp. 274-290).

The Princess Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife (1867-1931) was the eldest daughter of King Edward VII and younger sister of George V. Her husband, Alexander, 6th Earl Fife, became the last non-royal individual in the United Kingdom to receive a Dukedom, granted to him by Queen Victoria on the morning of his marriage. The Princess Louise, Alexander and their two daughters, Princesses Alexandra and Maud, famously survived a shipwreck in the Mediterranean in 1911.

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