Vase à col cylindrique/Vase à anses tortillés 1768
Soft-paste porcelain, green ground, gilded decoration and gilt bronze | .1 36.5 x15..8 x 14.5, .2 36.5 x 15.3 x 14.5 cm (including base/stand) | RCIN 31035
-
Sèvres soft paste porcelain pair of baluster vases. Green ground with gilded decoration, tall neck joined to the body by entwined branch handles, splayed circular feet mounted on square stepped plinth. Heart-shaped reserves on each side with polychrome painted pastoral scenes on the front and trophies on the reverse.
The two pastoral scenes on the front of the vases, confidently attributed to the Sèvres painter Charles-Nicolas Dodin (active 1754-1803), are copied from engravings after François Boucher (1703-70), La Pipée by Gilles Demarteau (1722-76) and L’agréable Leçon by René Gaillard (1719-90).
On the reverse sides, complementary elements of bucolic pastimes are incorporated into the trophies. The finely tooled gilded sections, which were intended to enhance the richness of decoration and the sparkling effect of reflected candlelight, are skilfully crafted on the six upright myrtle sprays of the lower section and the broken zigzag line on the gold band around the back reserve.
Text adapted from French Porcelain for English Palaces, Sèvres from the Royal Collection, London, 2009Provenance
Purchased by George IV from the estate of his mother, Queen Charlotte (d. 17 November 1818). The vases, described as ‘A Pair of 2 Handled Seve Vases on Grass green Ground with Pastoral figures’, were valued by Thomas Banting on 7 January 1819 at £60. They were entered in the Carlton House receipts’ ledger on 8 January: ‘[Received from] Buckingham House A Pair of Old Seve Porcelaine Vases with Bottle Shape Neck, with Handles. Green Ground & Gold Sprigs, with Medalions in Landscape & Figures, a Shepherd & Shepherdess on the one Making Love & on the Other Catching Birds, 12 ¼ Inches high, on the reverse side Flowers [sic]’. Recorded in 1826 in the Bow Room, Basement Storey, Carlton House: ‘No.74. A pair of green and gold straight necked Seve Porcelain Bottles with twisted handles of gold and white, small circular stems and plinths, the front Compartments painted in rural subjects, the backs in rural Trophies – 12 ½ In. high’.
-
Creator(s)
(porcelain manufacturer)(porcelain painter)(designer)(nationality)(engraver)(engraver)Acquirer(s)
-
Medium and techniques
Soft-paste porcelain, green ground, gilded decoration and gilt bronze
Measurements
.1 36.5 x15..8 x 14.5, .2 36.5 x 15.3 x 14.5 cm (including base/stand)
Category
Object type(s)
Place of Production
Sèvres [France]
