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Lot Essay
Unrecorded in the literature, the present garniture of three gilt-white hard paste vases is comprised of two extremely rare vase shapes – the central vase is one of only four known of which the three others are all in museum or ducal collections; the flanking pair would appear to be unique.
Their strength as a set lies in the interplay of form and decoration in gold-on-white; in the relationship between the alternating variant profiles, accentuated by the simplicity of the sculptural decoration repeated on all three but with a twist -- each vase is applied with garlands filling the valleys between the rounded ribs of the body but the harebells on the central vase drip down off the rounded shoulder whereas the blossoms on the side vases extend upwards from the socle, the stiffer quality of these garlands softened by the curl of the scroll handles similarly applied with blossoms, these draped on the shoulder of the vase. The covers of the two models repeat this positive/negative interplay, the center cover being almost completely gilt, those on the side being white with gilt outlining molded leaf decoration. Identical socles and bases help ensure that the two designs read unquestionably as a garniture – three vases always intended to be presented together, their forms and decoration variant but complimentary.
THE VASE SHAPES
Its design attributed to Jean-Claude Duplessis the Elder (1699-174), only three soft-paste examples of the central vase have been recorded, all in soft paste porcelain on beau bleu grounds: one in the collections of the Dukes of Bedford at Woburn Abbey; one, possibly from the collections of the Earls of Sefton, was acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1990; and a simpler version in the Wallace Collection, acquired by the 4th Marquess of Hertford in 1870.
Svend Eriksen attributes the design of this to Jean-Claude Duplessis père, noting that the shape closely resembles the four small gilt bronze vases mounted onto the gallery of Louis XV’s great bureau du Roi designed in 1767 by Duplessis (unclear if père or fils), made by Oeben and Riesner, and delivered to Versailles in 1769 (Eriksen, 1974, pp. 174-5). The attribution is seconded both by Rosalind Savill (Savill, London, 1988, vol. III , p. 978 and p. 979, footnote 26) and by Adrian Sassoon (Sassoon, 1999, p. 94).
Their obvious Neoclassical style, described as 'Greek taste', locates them solidly in the production of the royal factory for the years 1760-1775. Jean-Claude Duplessis père, goldsmith and bronzier at the factory from 1748 until his death in 1774, designed most of the shapes at that time. The rocaille style of his early career evolved into the goût Grec, certainly influenced by his son of the same name who survived him at the factory until 1783 and perhaps even more so by Etienne-Maurice Falconet, renowned sculptor and head of the sculpture studio at Sèvres until 1766. Duplessis père is credited with an important series of vases whose spirit is similar to 'ours': the vase ‘à tête de lion’ (circa 1765-69), the vase ‘chinois’ or ‘à pied de globe’ (circa 1769), the vase ‘à bande tournante’ (circa 1769), the vase ‘grille’ (circa 1773), the vase ‘du côté du Roi’ (circa 1775), the vase ‘œuf godronné’ (circa 1770), the vase ‘à œuf à côtes et reliefs’ (circa 1770), and, of course, the present models.
A plaster model for the side vases survives in the factory archives, described in the 19th century by Albert Troude as a vase ‘a côtes Duplessis’ (Troude, pl. 93.) However, no examples other than the present pair would appear to be extant.
TRACKING THE UNTRACEABLE
The dating of the present garniture to circa 1776 is based on a comparison with it and other vases of similar form and comparable decoration, including the three soft paste vases ‘à chaîne’ or ‘à côte de melon’ previously mentioned (all unmarked) as well as the pair of mantle ornaments previously in the collection of Boniface de Castellane and Anna Gould, sold Christie’s Paris, 6 March 2017, sale 14535, lot 52. Although also unmarked, one of the two was incised with a capital R, the mark attributed to Roger père, a repairer who worked in hard paste specifically within a four-year window of 1773-1777 (Savill, vol. III, p. 1121). Although no repairer’s marks can be seen on the present garniture, the style of these Duplessis models is so distinctive, it makes perfect sense that they would have been made at a similar time.
As good as the factory’s records are, the 1760s and 1770s have large gaps, and it has proven impossible to confirm the present unique garniture in the sales records. A likely candidate is the record of a delivery on 7 July 1776 of a ‘Garniture de 5 Vases en or et blanc’ to ‘Mylord Duc de Linster’ [the Duke of Leinster] at a cost of 2,160 livres. Assuming a delay in entering information, David Peters was able to identify what may be this garniture in the Register of payments to hard paste repairers and turners in August and December of 1776. Frustratingly, an attempt to trace them in the Leinster family records through the current duke and duchess has led to a dead end.
Although the exact origin of this garniture remains a mystery, there can be no doubt that it remains as vibrant and appealing today as it was 245 years ago when it would have been on the cutting edge of contemporary taste and design.
Their strength as a set lies in the interplay of form and decoration in gold-on-white; in the relationship between the alternating variant profiles, accentuated by the simplicity of the sculptural decoration repeated on all three but with a twist -- each vase is applied with garlands filling the valleys between the rounded ribs of the body but the harebells on the central vase drip down off the rounded shoulder whereas the blossoms on the side vases extend upwards from the socle, the stiffer quality of these garlands softened by the curl of the scroll handles similarly applied with blossoms, these draped on the shoulder of the vase. The covers of the two models repeat this positive/negative interplay, the center cover being almost completely gilt, those on the side being white with gilt outlining molded leaf decoration. Identical socles and bases help ensure that the two designs read unquestionably as a garniture – three vases always intended to be presented together, their forms and decoration variant but complimentary.
THE VASE SHAPES
Its design attributed to Jean-Claude Duplessis the Elder (1699-174), only three soft-paste examples of the central vase have been recorded, all in soft paste porcelain on beau bleu grounds: one in the collections of the Dukes of Bedford at Woburn Abbey; one, possibly from the collections of the Earls of Sefton, was acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1990; and a simpler version in the Wallace Collection, acquired by the 4th Marquess of Hertford in 1870.
Svend Eriksen attributes the design of this to Jean-Claude Duplessis père, noting that the shape closely resembles the four small gilt bronze vases mounted onto the gallery of Louis XV’s great bureau du Roi designed in 1767 by Duplessis (unclear if père or fils), made by Oeben and Riesner, and delivered to Versailles in 1769 (Eriksen, 1974, pp. 174-5). The attribution is seconded both by Rosalind Savill (Savill, London, 1988, vol. III , p. 978 and p. 979, footnote 26) and by Adrian Sassoon (Sassoon, 1999, p. 94).
Their obvious Neoclassical style, described as 'Greek taste', locates them solidly in the production of the royal factory for the years 1760-1775. Jean-Claude Duplessis père, goldsmith and bronzier at the factory from 1748 until his death in 1774, designed most of the shapes at that time. The rocaille style of his early career evolved into the goût Grec, certainly influenced by his son of the same name who survived him at the factory until 1783 and perhaps even more so by Etienne-Maurice Falconet, renowned sculptor and head of the sculpture studio at Sèvres until 1766. Duplessis père is credited with an important series of vases whose spirit is similar to 'ours': the vase ‘à tête de lion’ (circa 1765-69), the vase ‘chinois’ or ‘à pied de globe’ (circa 1769), the vase ‘à bande tournante’ (circa 1769), the vase ‘grille’ (circa 1773), the vase ‘du côté du Roi’ (circa 1775), the vase ‘œuf godronné’ (circa 1770), the vase ‘à œuf à côtes et reliefs’ (circa 1770), and, of course, the present models.
A plaster model for the side vases survives in the factory archives, described in the 19th century by Albert Troude as a vase ‘a côtes Duplessis’ (Troude, pl. 93.) However, no examples other than the present pair would appear to be extant.
TRACKING THE UNTRACEABLE
The dating of the present garniture to circa 1776 is based on a comparison with it and other vases of similar form and comparable decoration, including the three soft paste vases ‘à chaîne’ or ‘à côte de melon’ previously mentioned (all unmarked) as well as the pair of mantle ornaments previously in the collection of Boniface de Castellane and Anna Gould, sold Christie’s Paris, 6 March 2017, sale 14535, lot 52. Although also unmarked, one of the two was incised with a capital R, the mark attributed to Roger père, a repairer who worked in hard paste specifically within a four-year window of 1773-1777 (Savill, vol. III, p. 1121). Although no repairer’s marks can be seen on the present garniture, the style of these Duplessis models is so distinctive, it makes perfect sense that they would have been made at a similar time.
As good as the factory’s records are, the 1760s and 1770s have large gaps, and it has proven impossible to confirm the present unique garniture in the sales records. A likely candidate is the record of a delivery on 7 July 1776 of a ‘Garniture de 5 Vases en or et blanc’ to ‘Mylord Duc de Linster’ [the Duke of Leinster] at a cost of 2,160 livres. Assuming a delay in entering information, David Peters was able to identify what may be this garniture in the Register of payments to hard paste repairers and turners in August and December of 1776. Frustratingly, an attempt to trace them in the Leinster family records through the current duke and duchess has led to a dead end.
Although the exact origin of this garniture remains a mystery, there can be no doubt that it remains as vibrant and appealing today as it was 245 years ago when it would have been on the cutting edge of contemporary taste and design.