CIRCA 1720-30

These fine Saint-Cloud porcelain seaux à bouteille are exceptional in terms of the rarity of their decoration and large size and they represent a high point in the production of soft-paste porcelain at the factory. Saint-Cloud originally produced faience, setting out to imitate Chinese porcelain and to rival the ceramics made at Delft in Holland, which was being imported by the Dutch East India Company in the late 17th century. Production of soft-paste porcelain, alongside faience, began in the early 1690s, and the factory output evolved to include blue and white and relief-decorated wares and by the 1720s, polychrome enamelled pieces for wealthy households.

Seaux, both for glasses and bottles, were frequently produced at Saint-Cloud, but more usually in white porcelain with underglaze-blue decoration, or in white with relief decoration. The present examples are unusual because the decorative schemes combine polychrome Kakiemon-inspired elements and chinoiserie decoration. These highly decorative schemes may well have been copied from Chinese and Japanese originals, possibly those in the collection of the duc d’Orleans in the palace at Saint-Cloud, or perhaps from the examples of Chinese and Japanese porcelain which were sold in the manufactory shop, alongside the Saint-Cloud production.¹ There are both Japanese and Chinese sources for the decoration of the present lot: the birds to one side are from Japanese Kakiemon originals and the figures to the other side can be found on Chinese Export porcelain from the Kangxi reign (1662-1722). See illustrations below.

In addition to the polychrome Asian-inspired decoration on these coolers, another unusual decorative element is the gilding, skilfully employed to highlight certain areas. Gilding was infrequently used at Saint-Cloud and was a technique only applied to a small number of pieces. Gilding was the final stage in the decorating and firing porcelain and although very expensive, it was important in the age of candlelight as it reflected additional light onto the tea or dinner table. With such unusual and refined decoration it seems likely that our coolers were intended for an important recipient.

Of the groups of polychrome chinoiserie-decorated coolers, those in the present lot are of the larger and rarer size - ‘seaux à bouteille’ – at 18 cm. high. Apart from the present two, a single example with similar decoration and dolphin-mask handles was sold at Drouot Montaigne, Paris, 15 November 1991, lot 99 and another in the Fitzhenry sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 13-16 December 1909, lot 209, all with very similar decoration to the coolers in the present lot. Both catalogues show only one side to the cooler, and it is possible that they are, in fact, the same object. A further two are held in the Musée national de Céramique de Sèvres (MNC 5749 1& 2).² While the smaller glass-coolers are still very rare, a larger number of these exist. A group of seaux à verre (approx. 14.5 cm. high) with repeated decoration of figures around a table are known, with examples in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (50.211.136), two sold at Christie’s in London, 28 October 1963, lot 105 and subsequently sold at Christie’s in Paris, 14 April 2015, lot 51; another two examples are held in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1983.631,632),³ another single example was sold at Christie’s, London, 12 June 1995, lot 372, two were sold Drouot- Richelieu, Paris, 14 June 2005, lot 178 and two more from The Property of The Estate of the Late Mrs Charles E. Dunlap, Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 3 December 1975, lot 233. A single example of a bottle-cooler with the same decoration as this group of glass-coolers was sold in this sale as lot 232. A possible fifteenth was in the collection of the comte de Chavagnac, and sold Hôtel Drouot, 19-21 June 1911, lot 82, though it is unclear whether this may be one of the afore mentioned examples. There are further examples with less refined decoration and without gilding, including a pair in the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia (2011.293.a-b), and a pair in the Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris (36271a, b).⁴

It is likely that ‘sets’ of coolers were produced by the Saint-Cloud factory, though little information is available regarding how many would have been sold in a group. The two coolers in the present lot are decorated so that the elements mirror one another, and thus would have made a visually cohesive ‘pair’ when placed on a dining table, despite their slight differences in hand and palette. By the beginning of the 18th century, French dining was becoming more informal, and the glass-coolers would probably have been placed next to diners, with larger bottle-coolers placed on the table so that guests could serve themselves.

It is interesting to note that Madame de Pompadour owned sixty Saint-Cloud coolers at the time of her death in 1764, including three Saint-Cloud seaux à bouteille (no decoration described) at Versailles.⁵ Twenty-eight seaux with white relief decoration as well as another four Saint-Cloud bottle-coolers (one broken) and forty-two glass-coolers (one broken) with unspecified decoration were listed at Compiègne.⁶ There were also twenty-six bottle-coolers and thirty-two glass-coolers with white relief decoration at Fontainebleau.⁷ Rosalind Savill suggests that the coolers at Compiègne may have been displayed in the Dairy there, or perhaps ‘planted’ with Vincennes porcelain flowers.⁸ Though the present coolers pre-date Madame du Pompadour’s collecting period, it is tempting to imagine that with their elaborate chinoiserie and Kakiemon-style decoration and judicious use of rich gilding, they might have been supplied to her by her marchand-mercier, Lazare Duvaux, and could have been among the seaux listed, without further identifying description, as part of her inventory at Versailles or Compiègne. They are certainly of a quality suitable for such a patron.

1. Bertrand Rondot (ed.), Discovering the Secrets of Soft-Paste Porcelain at The Saint-Cloud Manufactory ca. 1690-1766, New Haven and London, 1999, p. 28.
2. Illustrated by Bertrand Rondot (ed.) in Discovering the Secrets of Soft-Paste Porcelain at The Saint-Cloud Manufactory ca. 1690-1766, New Haven and London,1999, p. 204, no. 134.
3. Illustrated by Vivian S. Hawes and Christina S. Corsiglia in The Rita & Frits Markus Collection of European Ceramics & Enamels, Connecticut, 1984, pp. 158-161, no. 52
4. Illustrated by Bertrand Rondot (ed.) in Discovering the Secrets of Soft-Paste Porcelain at The Saint-Cloud Manufactory ca. 1690-1766, New Haven and London,1999, p. 201, no. 129.
5. Jean Cordy, Inventaire des biens de Madame de Pompadour, rédigé après son décès, Paris, 1939, p. 63, no. 702.
6. Ibid, p. 131, no. 1714.
7. Ibid, p. 134, nos. 1758, 1759.
8. Rosalind Savill, Everyday Rococo, Madame de Pompadour & Sèvres Porcelain, Norwich, 2021, p. 464.