Vase à bandes 1771
Soft-paste porcelain, bleu céleste ground, gilded decoration and gilt bronze | .1 47.0 x 20.6 x 17.6, .2 46.5 x 20.5 x 17.7 cm (whole object) | RCIN 36105
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The skilful trompe l’oeil effect, combining moulded with flat decoration, was a successful decorative device employed at Sèvres. In this instance, the gilded high-relief leaf-and-berry garlands on the sides, seemingly suspended from the top by a ring and threaded through straps at the bottom, are visually extended by the finely tooled flat gilded laurel trails.
The pastoral scenes, painted by Charles-Nicolas Dodin (active 1754-1803), depict (on the left) the game of blind man’s buff, copied from the engraving Le Colin Maillard by Jacques-Firmin Beauvarlet (1731-97) after Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806), and (on the right) a reproduction of François Boucher’s Le Berger Récompensé, as engraved by René Gaillard. The detailed landscape scenes on the back have not been traced to any particular source, although repetition of the same scenes suggests that templates of some sort were sometimes used as models.
This pair of vases is the earliest known to survive of the model created in 1769.
Text adapted from French Porcelain for English Palaces, Sèvres from the Royal Collection, London, 2009Provenance
Bought as part of a garniture by François Benois for George IV in Paris from ‘Madame Cruford’ (account endorsed 15 May 1820) following the death of her husband, Quintin Craufurd, in November 1819. The entry reads: ‘3 vazes de Sevres Bleu turquoise à medaillons – Celui du milieu sujet turc, Les deux autres Sujets pastorales’. Entered late, in August 1820, by Benjamin Jutsham in the Carlton House receipts’ ledger as part of a consignment despatched from Weymouth by Mr Philips of Bond Street, the consignment represented the ‘whole of Mr Benois Purchase of the Goods bought by him at Paris contained in 6 Cases opened May 13th 1820’. The entry reads: ‘3 Seve Porcelaine Vases Sky Blue Ground & Gold ornaments, with Compartments of Figures & Landscapes, the Centre Vase is mounted with an Or molu Plynth … The Two side Vases are Painted with Landscapes & Figures on the one is a representation of Blindmans Buff, on the reverse side of the Vases are Landscapes & Figures. N.B. one of these Vases are broke at the Base … the 2 Side Vases 15I high’. Recorded in 1826, together with cat. no. 54 forming a garniture, in the Anti Room to the Dining Room, Basement Floor, Carlton House: ‘No.88. A pair of sky blue seve Vases and Covers, with hop tops banded, the sides of the Vases also banded, studded & festooned; circular gold threaded plinths, the fronts painted in compartments of rural subjects, and the backs in Landscape and Figures – 17 In. high’.
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Creator(s)
(porcelain manufacturer)(nationality)(engraver)Acquirer(s)
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Medium and techniques
Soft-paste porcelain, bleu céleste ground, gilded decoration and gilt bronze
Measurements
.1 47.0 x 20.6 x 17.6, .2 46.5 x 20.5 x 17.7 cm (whole object)
Other number(s)
Laking PC : Laking, G.F., 1907. Sèvres Porcelain of Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, London – Laking PC 125Place of Production
Sèvres [France]