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Lot Essay
The C couronné poinçon was a tax mark employed in France between March 1745 and February 1749 on any alloy containing copper.
With its vigorous and naturalistically-modelled scrolling acanthus, this pot-pourri vase reflects the Louis XV 'pittoresque' style promoted by marchands-merciers such as Lazare Duvaux. As his Livre-Journal testifies, the latter sold vases of this general form as early as 6 December 1751 to the marquise de Pompadour, as well as Deux pots pourris céladon, montés en bronze doré d'or moulu 288 livres to the comtesse de Bentheim on 15 December 1756. Duvaux is known to have employed the bronzier Jean-Claude Duplessis to mount Chinese porcelain - such as the vase sold to the marquise de Voyer on 21 August 1753: La Monture en cuivre ciselé d'un vase du porcelaine bleu, payée à M. Duplessis- but any firm attribution to a specific bronzier is unsustainable, both Thomas Germain and Jacques Caffiéri having also been suggested as possible authors of this form of mounted vase.
Related ormolu-mounted celadon porcelain pots-pourri, also stamped with the C couronné poinçon, include the single vase sold by the Trustees of the Luton Hoo Foundation, in these Rooms, 9 June 1994, lot 32 (£154,000); a pair in the J. Paul Getty Museum (F.J.B. Watson and G. Wilson, Mounted Oriental Porcelain in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1982, no.10, pp. 53-57); and a final pair in the Palace of the Legion of Honour, San Francisco (D. F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Chinesisches und Japanisches Porzellan in europaïschen Fassungen, Braunschweig, 1980, p. 323, no. 304).
The distinctive gilt-bronze neck mount is similar to that on other known pot-pourri vases. These include:- one from the Hodgkins Collection, reproduced in La Chinoiserie en Europe au XVIIIème Siècle, Paris, 1910, pl. 38; another sold anonymously at Sotheby's London, 18 June 1994, lot 280; another, formerly owned by the Earls of Ducie, sold anonymously at Sotheby's Monaco, 1 July 1995, lot 189; a pair sold by the comte de N., Sotheby's Monaco, 19 December 1995, lot 219; another in the Toledo Museum of Art (Inv. no. 55.244), illustrated in F.J.B. Watson, Chinese Porcelain in European Mounts, New York, 1980-81, no. 21, pp. 44-45; and, finally, on the pair of or noir vases, of which one was sold from the Riahi Collection, Christie's New York, 2 November 2000, lot 3 ($1,546,000).
With its vigorous and naturalistically-modelled scrolling acanthus, this pot-pourri vase reflects the Louis XV 'pittoresque' style promoted by marchands-merciers such as Lazare Duvaux. As his Livre-Journal testifies, the latter sold vases of this general form as early as 6 December 1751 to the marquise de Pompadour, as well as Deux pots pourris céladon, montés en bronze doré d'or moulu 288 livres to the comtesse de Bentheim on 15 December 1756. Duvaux is known to have employed the bronzier Jean-Claude Duplessis to mount Chinese porcelain - such as the vase sold to the marquise de Voyer on 21 August 1753: La Monture en cuivre ciselé d'un vase du porcelaine bleu, payée à M. Duplessis- but any firm attribution to a specific bronzier is unsustainable, both Thomas Germain and Jacques Caffiéri having also been suggested as possible authors of this form of mounted vase.
Related ormolu-mounted celadon porcelain pots-pourri, also stamped with the C couronné poinçon, include the single vase sold by the Trustees of the Luton Hoo Foundation, in these Rooms, 9 June 1994, lot 32 (£154,000); a pair in the J. Paul Getty Museum (F.J.B. Watson and G. Wilson, Mounted Oriental Porcelain in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1982, no.10, pp. 53-57); and a final pair in the Palace of the Legion of Honour, San Francisco (D. F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Chinesisches und Japanisches Porzellan in europaïschen Fassungen, Braunschweig, 1980, p. 323, no. 304).
The distinctive gilt-bronze neck mount is similar to that on other known pot-pourri vases. These include:- one from the Hodgkins Collection, reproduced in La Chinoiserie en Europe au XVIIIème Siècle, Paris, 1910, pl. 38; another sold anonymously at Sotheby's London, 18 June 1994, lot 280; another, formerly owned by the Earls of Ducie, sold anonymously at Sotheby's Monaco, 1 July 1995, lot 189; a pair sold by the comte de N., Sotheby's Monaco, 19 December 1995, lot 219; another in the Toledo Museum of Art (Inv. no. 55.244), illustrated in F.J.B. Watson, Chinese Porcelain in European Mounts, New York, 1980-81, no. 21, pp. 44-45; and, finally, on the pair of or noir vases, of which one was sold from the Riahi Collection, Christie's New York, 2 November 2000, lot 3 ($1,546,000).