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拍品專文
This magnificent tazza is among a small but prestigious group of ambitious and costly items of mounted granite and porphyry executed in Sweden during the reign of Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, maréchal de France (1763-1844), who in 1818 ascended the throne of Sweden as Karl XIV Johan and the throne of Norway as Karl III Johan. It is a near-identical variant of the tazza at Rosendal Palace in Stockholm, also executed in grey granite. Rosendal was a favorite retreat of the King, and was rebuilt in the 1820s and decorated in the novel Karl Johann style, a Swedish development of the Empire style that he had brought from France. The King earned renown for his association with luxurious stone production, privately purchasing the porphyry mines of the Älvadalen valley in 1818, and using the production of costly granite and porphyry vases, urns and other monumental vessels, often set with ormolu mounts, to disseminate the new national taste.
Many of the related granite and porphyry items were intended as diplomatic gifts by the King, who presented numerous granite and porphyry objects to Napoleon's maréchaux and various other French dignitaries. Eight examples are known to exist, all of which were almost certainly Royal commissions. Five, including the present lot, are in grey granite, called granitell or Åsbydiabas. The others include one in the Gala Room of the Royal Palace in Stockholm, one in the Museo Napoleonico in Rome, and the one at Rosendal. A further example is known to have appeared at Bukowskis, Stockholm, 1961, catalogue 367, lot 421. Three are known in light porphyry from Bredval, and include one which was given by the King to Etienne-Maurice Comte Gérard, Maréchal de France, and later in the collection of Adriano Ribolzi, Sotheby’s, Paris, 30 November 2011, lot 99; a second example which was given by the King to Lady Disbrowne in 1834, which was sold, Sotheby's, London, 25 May 1990, lot 173; for the third, see Christie’s, London, 11 December 2003, lot 69. The ormolu mounts for the tazza at Rosendal were supplied by one of Stockholm's leading bronziers, Ludwig Mangeot, for which he received 450 écus, and he was most probably responsible for the mounts on the other tazze as well (Porphyre, La Pierre Royale, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1990, no. 104).
Many of the related granite and porphyry items were intended as diplomatic gifts by the King, who presented numerous granite and porphyry objects to Napoleon's maréchaux and various other French dignitaries. Eight examples are known to exist, all of which were almost certainly Royal commissions. Five, including the present lot, are in grey granite, called granitell or Åsbydiabas. The others include one in the Gala Room of the Royal Palace in Stockholm, one in the Museo Napoleonico in Rome, and the one at Rosendal. A further example is known to have appeared at Bukowskis, Stockholm, 1961, catalogue 367, lot 421. Three are known in light porphyry from Bredval, and include one which was given by the King to Etienne-Maurice Comte Gérard, Maréchal de France, and later in the collection of Adriano Ribolzi, Sotheby’s, Paris, 30 November 2011, lot 99; a second example which was given by the King to Lady Disbrowne in 1834, which was sold, Sotheby's, London, 25 May 1990, lot 173; for the third, see Christie’s, London, 11 December 2003, lot 69. The ormolu mounts for the tazza at Rosendal were supplied by one of Stockholm's leading bronziers, Ludwig Mangeot, for which he received 450 écus, and he was most probably responsible for the mounts on the other tazze as well (Porphyre, La Pierre Royale, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1990, no. 104).