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A VINCENNES BLEU CELESTE GROUND BALUSTER EWER (POT DE M. DE LA BOISSIERE)

1755-56, BLUE INTERLACED LS ENCLOSING DATE LETTER C, INCISED GD

Details
A VINCENNES BLEU CELESTE GROUND BALUSTER EWER (POT DE M. DE LA BOISSIERE)
1755-56, BLUE INTERLACED LS ENCLOSING DATE LETTER C, INCISED Gd
The white baluster body encased by bleu céleste foliate forms divided at the sides with curved gilt serrated edges, the loop handle with a gilt foliate terminal, the front painted with a butterfly at rest on a bouquet of flowers within an elaborate gilt scroll cartouche with shaped panels of diaper, seeded and hatched ornament, the rim and pointed spout with a gilt dentil border (minute area of wear to gilding on tip of spout)
7 1/8 in. (18.1cm.) high
Provenance
Perhaps the broc roussel purchased by Lazare Duvaux 1 June -1 October 1755 for Madame de Pompadour.
Elizabeth Parke Firestone; Christie's, New York, 21-22 March 1991, lot 206.
Exhibited
Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, French Taste in the Eighteenth Century, 27 April - 3 June 1956, no. 434.
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

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Dominic Simpson
Dominic Simpson

Lot Essay

The Sèvres archives retains the original design for this pot à l'eau de La boixiere dated 19 fevrÿer 1753, see Tamara Préaud and Antoine d'Albis, La Porcelaine de Vincennes (Paris, 1991) p. 167, no. 160. According to the authors, a mould for this form was not created until 1 January 1755 and the first finished pieces were not produced until 29 October 1755. The pieces produced between 1755 and 1757 are not referred to by this title so pieces of this form produced during this period would have been referred to by another title, broc Roussel is most likely as the forms are so close. From mid 1757, the form of the present ewer is ascribed to, in the factory records, as Pot à eau de M. de la Boissiere. The Sèvres archives records (Vy 1 fol. 93 vo) delivered to M Duvaux 1er juin-1er oct 1755 at a cost of 600 livres:

1 broc roussel bleu celeste fleurs & 1 jatte a bord en relief bleu celeste fleurs

Although the Livre Journal de Lazare Duvaux records un broc bleu-céleste & jatte ovale ornés de fleurs, 600 l. bought by M. Bonnet, Payeur des rentes under no. 2308 for December 1755. The only entry for the period June - October of that year which is appropraite to this ewer and basin is on the 12th September under no. 2232 to Mme. la Marq. de Pompadour for 600 livres:

Une jatte de Vincennes à fleurs de relief, & fon broc à cartouches de fleurs

For a similar green-ground ewer in the collection of the Hermitage Museum see Nina Birioukova and Natalia Kazakevitch, La porcelaine de Sèvres du XVIII siècle (St. Petersburg, 2005), pp. 392-3, no. 1286.

Jean Gaillard de la Boissière (spelling varies) (1676-1759) was a wealthy man of commerce from Brittany with influential positions during the reign of Louis XV: Contrôleur Provincial and Fermier Général (1720-1750). The Grand Salon from his Parisian house is now kept in the collections of the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

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