THE ORMOLU CIRCA 1760, THE PORCELAIN CIRCA 1755, THE MEISSEN FOUNTAIN WITH BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARK, THE HÖCHST BASIN WITH RED WHEEL MARK

This magnificent fontaine à roseaux is inspired by the celebrated two-handled fountain and accompanying basin produced by the Vincennes porcelain factory after designs by Jean-Claude Duplessis in 1754. The combination of costly German porcelain with Parisian ormolu identifies this as the conception of one of the leading marchand merciers, most probably Lazare-Duvaux. The Vincennes-Sèvres factory produced only seven or eight such fountain and basin sets and according to Lazare-Duvaux's surviving daybook four of these were supplied to the leading patrons of the day: Madame de Pompadour, the Dauphin, the Dauphine, as well as Louis XV's sister Madame Sophie. A fifth fountain was purchased by Louis XV as a gift for the Austrian Empress Maria-Theresa. While the fountain owned by the Dauphine is believed to be that now in the David Collection, Copenhagen, the one owned by Madame de Pompadour was sold at Christie's, New York, 17 May 2005, lot 74 (US$1,808,000).

See Siegfried Ducret, 18th Century Porcelain, New York, 1976, p. 41 for the Höchst basin complete with ewer where the flower painting is attributed to Johann Zeschinger; see also Kurt Röder, Das Höchster Porzellan, Mainz, 1930, p. 118, table 129, no. 725 for another similar Höchst ewer and basin.