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Lot Essay
THE FORM
The present five vases form a Garniture de Cheminée. Conceived to impress, designed to be displayed along a chimney mantel, such sets of vases were always made in odd numbers, the largest central vase centering pairs in descending graduated sizes and in variant forms, the profile of each pair complementing those of the flanking vases. The present lot beautifully demonstrates this interplay of silhouettes, the curves of the flaring necks of the beaker vases echoing the curves of the central baluster vase, as the outside pair of smaller baluster vases fit neatly against the lower portion of the beakers. A garniture is usually comprised of three, five or seven vases, although larger examples comprised of nine and even eleven vases are known.
From the second half of the 17th century, garnitures made in earthenware, often Dutch delftware painted in blue on white with flowers or Chinoiserie scenes, became popular among the European aristocracy and cognoscenti. Then, as now, architects, interior designers and style influencers such as Daniel Marot (1661-1752) led the way, with the Dutch court at Het Loo and the English court at Hampton Court Palace modernizing interiors with the addition of rich configurations of vases atop both straight and corner mantelpieces, many of these displays remaining in place today.
THE DECORATION
With the discovery of the formula for hard-paste porcelain at Meissen, circa 1710, came the ability to create large-scale decorative vases, replacing the need to import, at huge expense, their equivalent from China or Japan. The development of the bright enamel colors associated with Meissen porcelain took several more years, finally achieving perfection under the direction of Johann Gregorius Höroldt (1696-1775) who arrived at the factory from Vienna 16 May 1726, brought along by the arcanist Samuel Stötzel (1685-1737). Stötzel had previously worked at Meissen, but in 1719 fled for Vienna and the porcelain factory of Claudius Innocentius Du Paquier (c.1679-1737). Feeling underappreciated, however, he returned to Meissen after seven years, bringing with him the Vienna factory’s premier painter in a bid to regain favor with his former employer and overcome his status as a traitor. Höroldt’s talents were quickly recognized at Meissen. He became head of the manufactory's painting studio, a post he held until his death. By 1731, Höroldt had succeeded in developing 16 new enamel colors, recording their recipes in a book in which he also sketched designs to be used as templates for his decorating schemes. It is Höroldt who developed the miniaturist style of Chinoiserie painting so highly prized at Meissen, although he was far from the only painter at the factory to execute it exquisitely.
The decoration on the present garniture is referred to in the Meissen literature as indianischeBlumen. Literally translating to 'Flowers of the East Indies', this style of flower painting draws its name and inspiration from the Chinese famille verte color palette and the Japanese Kakiemon-decorated porcelain imported into Europe via the Compagnie des Indes, both of which were particularly highly valued by the Saxon Court at Dresden.
Although beginning as a Blaumaler specializing in monochrome blue painting, by 1725 the painter Johann Ehrenfried Stadler (1701-1741) had grown to be recognized as the finest flower painter at the factory. Particularly known for the rich flowers and fantastical birds and insects of the type found on the present vases, he was a master of the enamel palette, using multiple shades of the same color and juxtaposing pinks, purples, oranges and greens to achieve the great depth of texture enriching the blossoms of the plants and the vibrant plumage of the fantasy birds. The presence of a blue crossed swords mark and a Pressnummer, rather than the AR monogram mark of Augustus II (d. 1733), helps date the present garniture to 1738-1741.
COMPARABLE EXAMPLES
Many of the extant Meissen vases with similar indianischeBlumen decoration associated with Stadler are held in museum collections, including two pairs of vases at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (accession nos. 64.101.135 - 64.101.138). An intact five-vase garniture dating to Meissen's early period is a true rarity, as very few come to market. Only one has appeared in recent years, a five-vase garniture, circa 1730, painted with similar Chinoiserie decoration of birds perched on branches on terraces, sold at Bonhams, London, 7 December 2011, lot 76. Its enameling was more limited than the decoration on the present lot, as its painted sections are restricted by the shapes of the vases themselves, and by the bands of iron-red Kakiemon blossoms encircling their shoulders. Rather than reading as continuous decoration that takes full advantage of the entire available porcelain ‘canvas’, the decoration on this slightly earlier garniture instead reads as a series of separate panels of bouquets, garden fences and birds.
A smaller three-vase garniture was offered for sale in France at Osenat, Fontainebleau, 24 March 2013, lot 163. More recently, a pair of elongated powdered-blue ground beaker vases decorated with Chinoiserie scenes thought to be painted by Stadler was sold in the Sammlung Oppenheimer auction, Sotheby's, New York, 14 September 2021, lot 49.
Also compare: Ulrich Pietsch, “Meissen Porcelain – Making a Brilliant Entrance 1710 to 1763”, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain from Aristocracy and Bourgeoisie 1710-1815, Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden, 2010, pp. 10-33 (for a synopsis of the early years of the Meissen factory, including the development of the painting studio and the work of J.E. Stadler); Sarah-Katharina Andres-Acevedo, Alfredo Reyes, et al, ed., Hidden Valuables: Early Period Meissen Porcelains from Swiss Private Collections, Munich, 2020, pp. 346-349, cat. nos. 97, 98; Maria L. Santangelo, et al., A Princely Pursuit: The Malcolm D. Gutter Collection of Early Meissen Porcelain, Munich, 2018, pp. 13, 105, 153, 160-163, 170-171, 176-177, 179, dust jacket illustration (for works in this collection, bequeathed to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, with decoration attributed to J.E. Stadler); and Jeffrey Munger, European Porcelain in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Haven, 2018, cover illustration and catalogue entry, no. 54.147.81, Gift of R. Thornton Wilson, in memory of Florence Ellsworth Wilson, 1954.
The present five vases form a Garniture de Cheminée. Conceived to impress, designed to be displayed along a chimney mantel, such sets of vases were always made in odd numbers, the largest central vase centering pairs in descending graduated sizes and in variant forms, the profile of each pair complementing those of the flanking vases. The present lot beautifully demonstrates this interplay of silhouettes, the curves of the flaring necks of the beaker vases echoing the curves of the central baluster vase, as the outside pair of smaller baluster vases fit neatly against the lower portion of the beakers. A garniture is usually comprised of three, five or seven vases, although larger examples comprised of nine and even eleven vases are known.
From the second half of the 17th century, garnitures made in earthenware, often Dutch delftware painted in blue on white with flowers or Chinoiserie scenes, became popular among the European aristocracy and cognoscenti. Then, as now, architects, interior designers and style influencers such as Daniel Marot (1661-1752) led the way, with the Dutch court at Het Loo and the English court at Hampton Court Palace modernizing interiors with the addition of rich configurations of vases atop both straight and corner mantelpieces, many of these displays remaining in place today.
THE DECORATION
With the discovery of the formula for hard-paste porcelain at Meissen, circa 1710, came the ability to create large-scale decorative vases, replacing the need to import, at huge expense, their equivalent from China or Japan. The development of the bright enamel colors associated with Meissen porcelain took several more years, finally achieving perfection under the direction of Johann Gregorius Höroldt (1696-1775) who arrived at the factory from Vienna 16 May 1726, brought along by the arcanist Samuel Stötzel (1685-1737). Stötzel had previously worked at Meissen, but in 1719 fled for Vienna and the porcelain factory of Claudius Innocentius Du Paquier (c.1679-1737). Feeling underappreciated, however, he returned to Meissen after seven years, bringing with him the Vienna factory’s premier painter in a bid to regain favor with his former employer and overcome his status as a traitor. Höroldt’s talents were quickly recognized at Meissen. He became head of the manufactory's painting studio, a post he held until his death. By 1731, Höroldt had succeeded in developing 16 new enamel colors, recording their recipes in a book in which he also sketched designs to be used as templates for his decorating schemes. It is Höroldt who developed the miniaturist style of Chinoiserie painting so highly prized at Meissen, although he was far from the only painter at the factory to execute it exquisitely.
The decoration on the present garniture is referred to in the Meissen literature as indianischeBlumen. Literally translating to 'Flowers of the East Indies', this style of flower painting draws its name and inspiration from the Chinese famille verte color palette and the Japanese Kakiemon-decorated porcelain imported into Europe via the Compagnie des Indes, both of which were particularly highly valued by the Saxon Court at Dresden.
Although beginning as a Blaumaler specializing in monochrome blue painting, by 1725 the painter Johann Ehrenfried Stadler (1701-1741) had grown to be recognized as the finest flower painter at the factory. Particularly known for the rich flowers and fantastical birds and insects of the type found on the present vases, he was a master of the enamel palette, using multiple shades of the same color and juxtaposing pinks, purples, oranges and greens to achieve the great depth of texture enriching the blossoms of the plants and the vibrant plumage of the fantasy birds. The presence of a blue crossed swords mark and a Pressnummer, rather than the AR monogram mark of Augustus II (d. 1733), helps date the present garniture to 1738-1741.
COMPARABLE EXAMPLES
Many of the extant Meissen vases with similar indianischeBlumen decoration associated with Stadler are held in museum collections, including two pairs of vases at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (accession nos. 64.101.135 - 64.101.138). An intact five-vase garniture dating to Meissen's early period is a true rarity, as very few come to market. Only one has appeared in recent years, a five-vase garniture, circa 1730, painted with similar Chinoiserie decoration of birds perched on branches on terraces, sold at Bonhams, London, 7 December 2011, lot 76. Its enameling was more limited than the decoration on the present lot, as its painted sections are restricted by the shapes of the vases themselves, and by the bands of iron-red Kakiemon blossoms encircling their shoulders. Rather than reading as continuous decoration that takes full advantage of the entire available porcelain ‘canvas’, the decoration on this slightly earlier garniture instead reads as a series of separate panels of bouquets, garden fences and birds.
A smaller three-vase garniture was offered for sale in France at Osenat, Fontainebleau, 24 March 2013, lot 163. More recently, a pair of elongated powdered-blue ground beaker vases decorated with Chinoiserie scenes thought to be painted by Stadler was sold in the Sammlung Oppenheimer auction, Sotheby's, New York, 14 September 2021, lot 49.
Also compare: Ulrich Pietsch, “Meissen Porcelain – Making a Brilliant Entrance 1710 to 1763”, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain from Aristocracy and Bourgeoisie 1710-1815, Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden, 2010, pp. 10-33 (for a synopsis of the early years of the Meissen factory, including the development of the painting studio and the work of J.E. Stadler); Sarah-Katharina Andres-Acevedo, Alfredo Reyes, et al, ed., Hidden Valuables: Early Period Meissen Porcelains from Swiss Private Collections, Munich, 2020, pp. 346-349, cat. nos. 97, 98; Maria L. Santangelo, et al., A Princely Pursuit: The Malcolm D. Gutter Collection of Early Meissen Porcelain, Munich, 2018, pp. 13, 105, 153, 160-163, 170-171, 176-177, 179, dust jacket illustration (for works in this collection, bequeathed to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, with decoration attributed to J.E. Stadler); and Jeffrey Munger, European Porcelain in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Haven, 2018, cover illustration and catalogue entry, no. 54.147.81, Gift of R. Thornton Wilson, in memory of Florence Ellsworth Wilson, 1954.