A French large inverted baluster vase and socle
Circa 1740, probably Luneville
Painted and splashed with manganese, ochre, pale-blue and turquoise, with flared neck, alternately moulded below at the shoulder with satyrs'-masks and up-turned scrolling leaves suspending pendant floral garlands, the lower part with four up-turned leaves below a stepped collar, on a circular spreading socle with a band of gadroons (lower part broken through and repaired, tips of one leaf at shoulder restored, slight chipping and flaking to extremities, minute chipping and flaking to socle)
27 in. (70 cm.) high overall
Provenance
Chteau de Lunville.
Two similar vases form the Muse historique lorrain (inv. 95.797), and formerly in the Collection of Chteau de Morey (Meurthe-et-Moselle), were exhibited at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta in 1990 and are illustrated in the catalogue Cramique Lorraine, Chefs-d'oeuvre des XVIII<->e & XIX<->e sicles, where Emile Decker notes that the Ducal archives record that in 1723 an order was made for "vasses de fayance pour les jardins de Son Altesse Royale"(sic). Although the order was made at a time when Jaques Chambrette had yet to establish the Luneville factory (1731), it is possible that the Luneville vases follow an earlier model made by a different factory.
In 1723 Leopold (1679-1729) was still the Duke of Lorraine and Bar. His son, Francis (I) Stephen, married Maria Theresa (the Hapsburg heiress) in 1736. France engineered an arrangement whereby Francis Stephen received the Grand-Duchy of Tuscany (where the last Medici ruler had just died), and the Duchy of Lorraine would pass to Stanislas Leszczinski, the Palatine of Poznan and father-in-law of Louis XV. Leszczinski had been proclaimed King of Poland in 1733 by a group of Polish nobles unhappy with the prospect of being ruled by Augustus II (King of Poland and elctor of Saxony), but he accepted the Duchy of Lorraine, where he was instrumental in the beautification of Nancy.
The present lot was probably made for Stanislas Leszczinski at somepoint shortly after 1736.