Lot Essay
See introduction before lot 166.
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMANFAUX LACQUER AT SEVRES Though Asian lacquer was prized among the elite throughout much of the late 17th and 18th century, Marie Antoinette’s creation of her Grand Cabinet Intérieur at Versailles in the 1780s reignited the trend. Cabinet makers like Jean Henri Riesener and Adam Weiswiler produced fabulous French furniture with a Chinoiserie twist, and Sèvres, the porcelain manufactory of the King, was eager to follow suit. Faux lacquer decoration was primarily produced at Sèvres over a fifteen year period, beginning in the early 1790s, once the ability to precipitate platinum was achieved, though a small number of pieces before that time are known. Made by applying thick layers of deep cobalt-blue glazes to create a black ground color, works were then carefully painted in gold and platinum to look like Cantonese lacquer. The following five lots are from two different services made by the Sèvres manufactory in this style, including the first known, one for the marquis de Sémonville, Louis XVI's ambassador to Genoa in 1791 and a later service purchased for the Portuguese Ambassador to Russia in 1805.
A SEVRES PORCELAIN BLACK-GROUND CHINOISERIE ICE-COOLER (SCEAU A TREPIED)
CIRCA 1790-91, BLUE INTERLACED L’S MARK
Details
A SEVRES PORCELAIN BLACK-GROUND CHINOISERIE ICE-COOLER (SCEAU A TREPIED)
CIRCA 1790-91, BLUE INTERLACED L’S MARK
Conceived as a brazier, the circular bowl with wide rim decorated with vignettes of chinoiserie figures at various pursuits, including taming a large bird, supported by monopodia paw feet surmounted by lion masks suspending rings, the lower-body, leg and cruci-form base with trailing wreaths of flowering vine, the blossoms edged in gilt in the manner of cloisonné enamel
10 in. (25.4 cm.) wide
CIRCA 1790-91, BLUE INTERLACED L’S MARK
Conceived as a brazier, the circular bowl with wide rim decorated with vignettes of chinoiserie figures at various pursuits, including taming a large bird, supported by monopodia paw feet surmounted by lion masks suspending rings, the lower-body, leg and cruci-form base with trailing wreaths of flowering vine, the blossoms edged in gilt in the manner of cloisonné enamel
10 in. (25.4 cm.) wide
Provenance
Delivered 6 May 1791 to Charles-Louis Huguet de Sémonville, who served as Envoy- Extraordinary to Genoa 14 July 1791-10 October 1792.
Literature
D. Peters, Sèvres Plates and Services of the 18th Century, privately printed, 2005, vol. IV, no. 6.5.1791, p. 927.