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拍品專文
These precious ormolu-mounted Chinese celadon ewers are superb examples of the objets de luxe conceived for the French elite at the stylistic transition between the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI. Alluding, with the rectilinear lines of the handles and gadrooned lip and large acanthus leaves, to the early expressions of neoclassicism embodied by the goût grec, the spouts of these ewers cast with lion masks and the floral swags adorning the porcelain bodies reflect the development of this style in the early reign of Louis XVI.
A pair of ewers of this model, but with bodies of alabaster, was sold from the collection of Baron Fould-Springer, formerly the collection of Cécile de Rothschild, Christie's, Paris, 11 March 2003, lot 409 and again Christie's, London, 31 October 2023, lot 11. A pair of ormolu-mounted ewers with porcelain bodies, in the goût grec taste but with masks and swags, sold Sotheby's, Paris, 5 June 2015, lot 279.
The French practice of mounting Asian ceramics in European metalwork, recorded as early as the fourteenth century, took on a new life in the eighteenth century, as gilt-bronze replaced silver as the preferred mounting medium, and mounts themselves took on new and more complex, sculptural forms. Just as the marchands-merciers of Paris were responsible for the supply of Asian porcelain to their networks of clients, so too did they maintain close networks within the guilds of bronze casters and chasers (fondeurs-ciseleurs) and gilders (doreurs), who could produce mounts to enrich their wares. By framing the precious Chinese porcelain in sumptuous gilt-bronze, these craftsmen transformed them into entirely new objects, aligning them with the latest tastes of the era's most elite collectors. As Carolyn Sargentson notes, the practice of mounting porcelain allowed them to move beyond being seen as foreign novelties, integrating them instead into 'the French canon of good design and craftsmanship' (C. Sargentson, Merchants and Luxury Markets, London, 1996, p. 62).
A pair of ewers of this model, but with bodies of alabaster, was sold from the collection of Baron Fould-Springer, formerly the collection of Cécile de Rothschild, Christie's, Paris, 11 March 2003, lot 409 and again Christie's, London, 31 October 2023, lot 11. A pair of ormolu-mounted ewers with porcelain bodies, in the goût grec taste but with masks and swags, sold Sotheby's, Paris, 5 June 2015, lot 279.
The French practice of mounting Asian ceramics in European metalwork, recorded as early as the fourteenth century, took on a new life in the eighteenth century, as gilt-bronze replaced silver as the preferred mounting medium, and mounts themselves took on new and more complex, sculptural forms. Just as the marchands-merciers of Paris were responsible for the supply of Asian porcelain to their networks of clients, so too did they maintain close networks within the guilds of bronze casters and chasers (fondeurs-ciseleurs) and gilders (doreurs), who could produce mounts to enrich their wares. By framing the precious Chinese porcelain in sumptuous gilt-bronze, these craftsmen transformed them into entirely new objects, aligning them with the latest tastes of the era's most elite collectors. As Carolyn Sargentson notes, the practice of mounting porcelain allowed them to move beyond being seen as foreign novelties, integrating them instead into 'the French canon of good design and craftsmanship' (C. Sargentson, Merchants and Luxury Markets, London, 1996, p. 62).