Classic Design: Furniture, Silver & Ceramics
Classic Design: Furniture, Silver & Ceramics
A Sèvres (Louis-Phillipe) Red-Ground Vase, 'vase Fontaine', Circa 1844
Lot Closed
April 4, 03:59 PM GMT
Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
A Sèvres (Louis-Phillipe) Red-Ground Vase, 'vase Fontaine', Circa 1844
the neck with a pink spiral fluted band reserved on pale-green-ground, affixed with pierced gilt-edged acanthus leaf scroll handles with grotesque mask terminals, the shoulder with platinum and gilt stiff-leaves above a greek-key band reserving pink and yellow flowerheads, the bulbous body painted, probably by Joseph Lejour, with two large hanging garlands of mixed flowers reserved on a gris-de-lin ground, the lower section molded in relief with stiff green leaves and gilt stylized flowerheads, on a circular foot with a laurel leaf-band, printed crowned LP monogram and SEVRES/1844 blue, incised M(?)-41-8, monogram mark FB for François-Hubert Barbin, gilt letter M perhaps for Jean-Louis Moyez
height 18 3/8 in.
46.7 cm
An outline drawing of this vase shape, bearing the title 'vase fontaine' and dated 1841 is retained in the archives at Sèvres, inv. no. 2012.1.3497. A second vase, painted by Joseph Lejour, which almost certainly forms the pair to the present vase, is in the musée national Adrien Dubouché, Limoges, inv. no. ADL 9576, acquired by the museum in 1990 and published in Chantal Meslin-Pierrier, The National Museum Adrien Dubouché Limoges, Paris 1992. The vase was given as a reward to the artist Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot at the 1848 Paris salon when he received a second-class medal.
It is probable Lejour painted the flower garlands on the present vase. Joseph Lejour was active as a painter of flowers at Sèvres from 1843-1854. Among his works he painted flower panels for the clock Pendule 'Turque a Musique' shown at the 1846 Louvre exhibition. The present vase bears the FB monogram for François-Hubert Barbin who was a painter of ornaments, active at Sèvres from 1815 to 1848.
Elements of the design, such as the green stiff leaf band at the base and the smaller gilt and platinum stiff leaf band at the shoulder, may be compared with the vase Egyptian B form, or ‘Egyptian Champollion’, introduced in 1832. A watercolour design from 1832 is reproduced by Tamara Praud, The Sèvres porcelain Manufactory, Alexandre Brongniart and the Triumph of Art and Industry, 1800-1847, New York, 1997, pp. 262-63, cat. no. 72, where the author notes that in 1844 two vases of the same form, painted by Pierre Huard entered the sales inventory in May, and were presented at the Louvre Exposition des Manufactures Royales in June.
The painted garlands can be closely compared to a vase ‘Théricléen, gifted by King Louis Phillipe to the Standish family in 1844. The vase, now in the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, England, inv. no. 1995.33 is illustrated and discussed by Howard Coutts, ‘Louis Philippe’s Gifts to the Standish Family’, The French Porcelain Society Journal, Vol. VII, 2018, p. 168, fig. 4. Originally a pair which costed 1,000 francs each and decorated by Jean-Joseph Fontaine (active 1827-57) and gilded by Pierre Riton (active 1821-60).