CIRCA 1775-85, THE LACQUER EDO PERIOD, 18TH CENTURY

T‌he Bacchic mask handle mounts selected by the marchand-mercier for these prized lacquer pot-pourri vases are the same model found on a pair of green ground Sevres porcelain vases, dated 1788 now in the British Royal Collection [RCIN 280]. There was a strong relationship between the Sevres porcelain factory, bronziers such as Duplessis and Thomire, and the marchand-merciers commissioning works for their clients.
Whilst gilt-bronze mounted European porcelain was relatively common amongst 18th century collectors, mounted lacquer objects were rarer, and more prized, as European craftsman had not been able to master the art of lacquering to the same standard. Thus these exotic lacquer objects had to be imported, with a preference for the precision of Japanese lacquer. In Paris this fashion for collecting lacquer objects began in the second quarter of the 18th century but continued to delight collectors in to the 21st century. A pair of related pot-pourri vases, also with finials in the form of taborets and goat monopodia were sold from the collection of the Marquise de Ganay, née Ridgway, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, Me F. Lair-Dubreuil, 8-10 May 1922. Undoubtedly the most famous 18th century collection of Japanese lacquer objects was that of Queen Marie-Antoinette who inherited it from her mother Empress Marie-Thérèse of Austria.
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MADAME DE POLES
Madame de Polès' established and impressive collection of 18th century French furniture, objets d’art and paintings which were dispersed at two significant sales at Galerie Georges Petit in 1927 and at the Galerie Charpentier in 1936. Major works by Fragonard, Hubert Robert or Boucher were sold alongside masterpieces by the greatest French ébénistes of the 18th century including André-Charles Boulle, Martin Carlin, Jean-Henri Riesener and David Roentgen. Several of these works are held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.