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Lot Essay
The fashion for embellishing Chinese porcelain with sumptuous ormolu mounts was at its height in the 1740s, and largely initiated by marchands merciers, many of whom assembled porcelain elements of various origins to create precious objects for use and display, such as can be seen in the present lot. This encrier is typical of the imagination of the marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux (1703-1758) who specialised in the creation of such luxurious objects and created whimsical 'objets de luxe' for the French Court.
The porcelain dish in the present lot is marked in cobalt blue under glaze with six-character Kangxi period mark to the base (1662-1722). The Emperor Kangxi was the first Qing dynasty ruler to consolidate power after the tumult of the mid-17th century, and one of the most important acts of his early reign was the reinvigoration of the famous porcelain kilns at Jingdezhen. In 1680 he established a commission to investigate the state of the porcelain industry, and consequentially followed this with the 1682 appointment of a highly capable and innovative Director of the Kilns and Jingdezhen began to manufacture high quality porcelains both for the Imperial household and for export to Europe.
JULES PORGES
Jules Porgès (1839-1921), the celebrated diamond merchant and mining entrepreneur, was born in Prague and settled in Paris in the early 1860s. His firm Jules Porges & Co. had become the most important and richest diamond firm in the world by the time of the discovery of the Kimberley mines and controlled much of the diamond-cutting in Amsterdam. Porgès quickly grasped the importance of South African output on the world market for precious stones and in 1873 sent two of the firm's representatives there, Julius Wernher and Alfred Beit. He himself went to Kimberley in 1876 and set up the Compagnie Française de Diamant du Cap de Bonne Espérance to control the Kimberley mine.
Jules Porgès made use of his substantial fortune to form an important collection of French furniture, a part of which was sold in 1924 following his death. The well-known Louis XV table à Bourgogne by Oeben in the Wernher Collection at Luton Hoo was given by Porges to his friend and colleague Sir Julius Wernher who ran the former's London operation from 1881.
HOTEL PORGES AND CHATEAU PORGES
Porgès commissioned the architect Paul Ernest Sanson to build a neo-Louis XV mansion in the Avenue Montaigne, Paris between 1895-1899. The interior was described in the following terms: 'le décor intérieur, lambris, cheminées, tapisseries, mobilier, porcelaines, cartels, témoigne de la passion que les propriétaires nourrissaient pour les oeuvres d'art du temps bien-aimé' (Les Champs Elysées et leur quartier, Délégation à L'Action Artistique de la Ville de Paris, 1988, p. 198). While the furniture was mostly of the Louis XV period, the picture gallery was hung with paintings by Rubens, Rembrandt, Claude Lorraine and van Dyck, amongst others.
At the same time he engaged the architect Charles Mewes in 1896 to build a large château at Rochefort-en-Yvelines, on the plans of the palais de la légion d'honneur in Paris but double the size. Sir Julius Wernher was so impressed by the result that he engaged Charles Mewes for the transfomation of Luton Hoo.
The fashion for embellishing Chinese porcelain with sumptuous ormolu mounts was at its height in the 1740s, and largely initiated by marchands merciers, many of whom assembled porcelain elements of various origins to create precious objects for use and display, such as can be seen in the present lot. This encrier is typical of the imagination of the marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux (1703-1758) who specialised in the creation of such luxurious objects and created whimsical 'objets de luxe' for the French Court.
The porcelain dish in the present lot is marked in cobalt blue under glaze with six-character Kangxi period mark to the base (1662-1722). The Emperor Kangxi was the first Qing dynasty ruler to consolidate power after the tumult of the mid-17th century, and one of the most important acts of his early reign was the reinvigoration of the famous porcelain kilns at Jingdezhen. In 1680 he established a commission to investigate the state of the porcelain industry, and consequentially followed this with the 1682 appointment of a highly capable and innovative Director of the Kilns and Jingdezhen began to manufacture high quality porcelains both for the Imperial household and for export to Europe.
JULES PORGES
Jules Porgès (1839-1921), the celebrated diamond merchant and mining entrepreneur, was born in Prague and settled in Paris in the early 1860s. His firm Jules Porges & Co. had become the most important and richest diamond firm in the world by the time of the discovery of the Kimberley mines and controlled much of the diamond-cutting in Amsterdam. Porgès quickly grasped the importance of South African output on the world market for precious stones and in 1873 sent two of the firm's representatives there, Julius Wernher and Alfred Beit. He himself went to Kimberley in 1876 and set up the Compagnie Française de Diamant du Cap de Bonne Espérance to control the Kimberley mine.
Jules Porgès made use of his substantial fortune to form an important collection of French furniture, a part of which was sold in 1924 following his death. The well-known Louis XV table à Bourgogne by Oeben in the Wernher Collection at Luton Hoo was given by Porges to his friend and colleague Sir Julius Wernher who ran the former's London operation from 1881.
HOTEL PORGES AND CHATEAU PORGES
Porgès commissioned the architect Paul Ernest Sanson to build a neo-Louis XV mansion in the Avenue Montaigne, Paris between 1895-1899. The interior was described in the following terms: 'le décor intérieur, lambris, cheminées, tapisseries, mobilier, porcelaines, cartels, témoigne de la passion que les propriétaires nourrissaient pour les oeuvres d'art du temps bien-aimé' (Les Champs Elysées et leur quartier, Délégation à L'Action Artistique de la Ville de Paris, 1988, p. 198). While the furniture was mostly of the Louis XV period, the picture gallery was hung with paintings by Rubens, Rembrandt, Claude Lorraine and van Dyck, amongst others.
At the same time he engaged the architect Charles Mewes in 1896 to build a large château at Rochefort-en-Yvelines, on the plans of the palais de la légion d'honneur in Paris but double the size. Sir Julius Wernher was so impressed by the result that he engaged Charles Mewes for the transfomation of Luton Hoo.