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Lot Essay
The théière ‘Chinoise ronde’ was designed by Alexandre-Evariste Fragonard in 1831-32. The striking design propounded the current European vogue for exoticism and Alexandre Brongniart’s fascination with the East. A drawing of 1832 by Fragonard (see illustration) is preserved in the archives at Sèvres, in which the Asian-inspired form is decorated with chinoiserie figures, but reinterpreted through a European eye.
Only eleven examples of this form were produced between 1832 and 1846, all as single pieces without accompanying tea wares and this example, dated 1846, must have been among the last made at the manufactory. The present teapot is almost certainly that entered in the factory’s sales records for 31 December 1846, described as Théière chinoise ronde Fragonard, décor en or et couleur dans le style chinois, the production cost noted as 175 francs, the selling price as 200 francs. [vv4. Fol 84 v-34]. Although no specific purchaser is listed, the entry above is for a Déjeuner chinois reticulé, a small service often purchased by the empress as a gift, and the entries below for a selection of pieces for the Trianon Palace (pour le Palais de Trianon). It is thus not impossible that the teapot also was destined for the imperial household. Another example, recorded in the sales inventory on 31 December 1832 was decorated in the same manner with ‘coloured flowers against a black ground’, but is not among the very few examples that are known to survive. For further discussion of the form see Tamara Préaud, The Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory: Alexandre Brongniart and the Triumph of Art and Industry 1800-47, Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, New York, 1997, p. 266, no. 75.
An example of this model, dated 1832, and sold to Queen Marie-Amélie of France in 1837 was sold by Sotheby’s, Paris, 29 March 2007, lot 123 and is now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession no. 2007.408a,b).
Only eleven examples of this form were produced between 1832 and 1846, all as single pieces without accompanying tea wares and this example, dated 1846, must have been among the last made at the manufactory. The present teapot is almost certainly that entered in the factory’s sales records for 31 December 1846, described as Théière chinoise ronde Fragonard, décor en or et couleur dans le style chinois, the production cost noted as 175 francs, the selling price as 200 francs. [vv4. Fol 84 v-34]. Although no specific purchaser is listed, the entry above is for a Déjeuner chinois reticulé, a small service often purchased by the empress as a gift, and the entries below for a selection of pieces for the Trianon Palace (pour le Palais de Trianon). It is thus not impossible that the teapot also was destined for the imperial household. Another example, recorded in the sales inventory on 31 December 1832 was decorated in the same manner with ‘coloured flowers against a black ground’, but is not among the very few examples that are known to survive. For further discussion of the form see Tamara Préaud, The Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory: Alexandre Brongniart and the Triumph of Art and Industry 1800-47, Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, New York, 1997, p. 266, no. 75.
An example of this model, dated 1832, and sold to Queen Marie-Amélie of France in 1837 was sold by Sotheby’s, Paris, 29 March 2007, lot 123 and is now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession no. 2007.408a,b).