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Lot Essay
Porcelain from the Far East has been prized in the West since the Middle Ages for its exotic character and the perfection of its technique. Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch traders brought examples of these mysterious wares to the West, creating a passion for all things from ‘les Indes’, which even extended to creating whole porcelain rooms. This ‘engoument pour la Chine’ was particularly marked in France after the famous visit of the Siamese ambassadors to the court of Louis XIV in 1686, bringing with them abundant gifts to the king including lacquer, textiles and no fewer than 1,500 pieces of porcelain. The inventory drawn up in 1689 of the collection of the king’s eldest son, the Grand Dauphin, a passionate collector of porcelain, included a special section devoted to ‘Porcelaines données par les Siamois’ and listed 380 pieces of blue and white porcelain.
The fashion for transforming such exotic and expensive Chinese porcelain into true 'objets de luxe' with the addition of rich gilt-bronze mounts first emerged in the Louis XIV period at the end of the 17th Century (earlier examples tended to be mounted in silver or silver-gilt), and reached its zenith through the activities of marchands-merciers such as Lazare Duvaux and Thomas-Joachim Hébert. Francis Watson and Gillian Wilson suggest that one reason for mounting these objects was to naturalise them to the decorative scheme of the French interior and give them a quasi-French appearance while retaining their exciting exotic character – exciting not only for their design and colour, but also because of their material (F.J.B Watson & G. Wilson, Mounted Oriental Porcelain in the J. Paul Getty Museum, California, 1982, pp. 1 & 15).
The popularity for mounting porcelain became such that eventually the cost of the mounts began to outrun the value of the porcelain which it adorned. The Livre-Journal of Lazare Duvaux for 1751 notes that Madame de Pompadour paid the extraordinary sum of 1,680 livres for a pair of ormolu-mounted celadon ewers. The detail with which such rich objects were described in contemporary sale catalogues during the second half of the 18th Century, in contrast to the more generalised descriptions of (unmounted) Chinese porcelain found in earlier inventories, demonstrates the regard in which such objects were held. Moreover, vases, pots and ornaments were manufactured with the specific intention of being mounted in contrast with earlier examples which were usually everyday objects such as tobacco jars, as with the present vases, which have been cut at the shoulder to form a wider opening.
These sophisticated cache-pots are set in Bérainesque strapwork mounts centred by masks and relate to the later oeuvre of André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732), in particular to a design for a set of wall-lights, supplied by Boulle to the duchesse de Berry, circa 1715, currently in the Louvre, Paris (J.N. Ronfort, André-Charles Boulle, 1642-1732, Ein neuer Stil Für Europa, Frankfurt, 2009, p. 80). This design can also be seen on the set of wall-lights in this collection (lot 12) and on a pair of Chinese Kangxi lidded vases currently in the J. Paul Getty Museum, California (Watson & Wilson, op. cit., pp. 24-25, no. 2). The strapwork mounts and handles adorning these cache-pots are also closely related to those on a Japanese Imari bowl and another pair of Chinese Kangxi lidded vases, both in the Getty, as well as on a Japanese Imari lidded bowl with silver mounts in the Toledo Museum of Art, which is struck with the Paris décharge mark of 1717-1722 (ibid., pp. 28-29 & 32-34, nos. 3 & 4; F.J.B. Watson, Mounted Oriental Porcelain, Washington, 1986, pp. 56-57, no. 14). A pair of mounted Chinese Wucai porcelain cache-pots with very similar Bérainesque strapwork mounts and gadrooned rims was sold anonymously at Christie’s, London, 6 July 2012, lot 170 (£85,250) and another similarly mounted pair from the Ortiz-Patiño Collection was sold at Sotheby’s, New York, 25 April 1998, lot 234 ($178,500).
These cache-pots were in the collections of the comtes de Vogüé at the château de Vaux-le-Vicomte. The château was built by Nicolas Fouquet between 1658 and 1661. Fouquet, an ambitious bureaucrat from Anjou, rose rapidly under the tutelage of Cardinal Mazarin and became Surintendant des Finances to Louis XIV. The château was the product of his ambition as well as a celebration of his success. It was incredible to behold and for a short time it was the centre of literature, art and fine fêtes. However, the lavish and dazzling nature of the château was sadly the death-knell of its owner. The king had Fouquet arrested shortly after the famous inaugural fête in August 1661. The celebration had been too impressive and the château too luxurious, even if the intention had been to flatter the King. After a long period of neglect in the mid-19th Century, the estate was sold to Alfred Sommier (1835-1908), who with his son Edmé (1873-1945), spent decades restoring and refurbishing the château and its gardens (J.-M. Pérouse de Montclos, Vaux-le-Vicomte, London, 1997). Edmé Sommier’s sister Lucie (1874-1946) married Robert de Vogüé in 1897, and the château passed to their descendants.
The fashion for transforming such exotic and expensive Chinese porcelain into true 'objets de luxe' with the addition of rich gilt-bronze mounts first emerged in the Louis XIV period at the end of the 17th Century (earlier examples tended to be mounted in silver or silver-gilt), and reached its zenith through the activities of marchands-merciers such as Lazare Duvaux and Thomas-Joachim Hébert. Francis Watson and Gillian Wilson suggest that one reason for mounting these objects was to naturalise them to the decorative scheme of the French interior and give them a quasi-French appearance while retaining their exciting exotic character – exciting not only for their design and colour, but also because of their material (F.J.B Watson & G. Wilson, Mounted Oriental Porcelain in the J. Paul Getty Museum, California, 1982, pp. 1 & 15).
The popularity for mounting porcelain became such that eventually the cost of the mounts began to outrun the value of the porcelain which it adorned. The Livre-Journal of Lazare Duvaux for 1751 notes that Madame de Pompadour paid the extraordinary sum of 1,680 livres for a pair of ormolu-mounted celadon ewers. The detail with which such rich objects were described in contemporary sale catalogues during the second half of the 18th Century, in contrast to the more generalised descriptions of (unmounted) Chinese porcelain found in earlier inventories, demonstrates the regard in which such objects were held. Moreover, vases, pots and ornaments were manufactured with the specific intention of being mounted in contrast with earlier examples which were usually everyday objects such as tobacco jars, as with the present vases, which have been cut at the shoulder to form a wider opening.
These sophisticated cache-pots are set in Bérainesque strapwork mounts centred by masks and relate to the later oeuvre of André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732), in particular to a design for a set of wall-lights, supplied by Boulle to the duchesse de Berry, circa 1715, currently in the Louvre, Paris (J.N. Ronfort, André-Charles Boulle, 1642-1732, Ein neuer Stil Für Europa, Frankfurt, 2009, p. 80). This design can also be seen on the set of wall-lights in this collection (lot 12) and on a pair of Chinese Kangxi lidded vases currently in the J. Paul Getty Museum, California (Watson & Wilson, op. cit., pp. 24-25, no. 2). The strapwork mounts and handles adorning these cache-pots are also closely related to those on a Japanese Imari bowl and another pair of Chinese Kangxi lidded vases, both in the Getty, as well as on a Japanese Imari lidded bowl with silver mounts in the Toledo Museum of Art, which is struck with the Paris décharge mark of 1717-1722 (ibid., pp. 28-29 & 32-34, nos. 3 & 4; F.J.B. Watson, Mounted Oriental Porcelain, Washington, 1986, pp. 56-57, no. 14). A pair of mounted Chinese Wucai porcelain cache-pots with very similar Bérainesque strapwork mounts and gadrooned rims was sold anonymously at Christie’s, London, 6 July 2012, lot 170 (£85,250) and another similarly mounted pair from the Ortiz-Patiño Collection was sold at Sotheby’s, New York, 25 April 1998, lot 234 ($178,500).
These cache-pots were in the collections of the comtes de Vogüé at the château de Vaux-le-Vicomte. The château was built by Nicolas Fouquet between 1658 and 1661. Fouquet, an ambitious bureaucrat from Anjou, rose rapidly under the tutelage of Cardinal Mazarin and became Surintendant des Finances to Louis XIV. The château was the product of his ambition as well as a celebration of his success. It was incredible to behold and for a short time it was the centre of literature, art and fine fêtes. However, the lavish and dazzling nature of the château was sadly the death-knell of its owner. The king had Fouquet arrested shortly after the famous inaugural fête in August 1661. The celebration had been too impressive and the château too luxurious, even if the intention had been to flatter the King. After a long period of neglect in the mid-19th Century, the estate was sold to Alfred Sommier (1835-1908), who with his son Edmé (1873-1945), spent decades restoring and refurbishing the château and its gardens (J.-M. Pérouse de Montclos, Vaux-le-Vicomte, London, 1997). Edmé Sommier’s sister Lucie (1874-1946) married Robert de Vogüé in 1897, and the château passed to their descendants.