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Sèvres porcelain factory

Vase à anses à/en tire bouchon drum base 1813-14

Soft-paste porcelain, bleu nouveau ground, gilded decoration and gilt bronze | 32.5 x 23.1 x 18.8 cm (whole object) | RCIN 59172

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  • This vase is fitted with elaborate gilt bronze mounts and is raised on a drum of hard-paste Sèvres porcelain painted a dark blue ground and decorated with gold bands. The circular foot of the vase is in white and gold with vertical stripes between bands in gold. The top rim of the vase is similarly treated. The handles are in white and gold, the white areas speckled in gold and the moulded husks gilded. A pierced, flared top ring of gilt bronze, which would originally have been fitted with a cover in porcelain or metal, is chased with upright palm leaves alternating with pierced lobes below a gadrooned rim. The foot of the vase is lodged in a gadrooned tazza, supported on the tails of four dolphins resting on a platform inset into a stepped top ring fitted to the stepped porcelain drum. The ring incorporates a fluted cavetto moulding on its upper register. A beaded moulding runs along the top of the step of the drum. An entwined rope motif encircles the top of the plain foot ring.

    The vase is an example of a Sèvres vase that has been ‘improved’ through the addition of mounts and porcelain. These embellishments were intended to endow the object with greater panache and presence so that it could hold its own among the glittering Sèvres vases specially made to be fitted with mounts, which enjoyed such favour in the 1780s and which were in particular demand at Carlton House. It is probable that the drum on the vase was bought, with others, from the Sèvres manufactory by the dealer Philippe-Claude Maëlrondt on 25 October 1814. Maëlrondt possibly had a different use in mind for the ‘drums’ as supports for busts in biscuit porcelain of Alexander the Great. In the orders’ ledger the four round drums (socles), which he bought on 25 October 1814, can probably be identified in an entry under his name dated 31 August 1814. The entry, which is annotated ‘L[ivré] ’, reads ‘4 socles ronds fond beau bleu filet en or’. It is followed by ‘4 cassolettes rondes id [beau bleu filet en or]’, annotated ‘L[ivré] 2’. However, it is likely that this vase à tire-bouchon was ‘assembled’ with the drum and is one of the two vases ordered by Maëlrondt; he was responsible for the design of this ornamental confection, combining old and new Sèvres with lavish gilt bronze mounts incorporating dolphin supports and a flaring top ring. The popularity of vases of this shape and to which gilt bronze mounts had been added, extended into the latter part of the 19th century.

    Text adapted from French Porcelain: In the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, London, 2009
    Provenance

    Probably bought by George IV from R. Owen (bill headed 18 February 1829 (RA 32767).: ‘a Do Do [centre (sic) Royal blue] (Dolphins) 40 gns’). An accompanying note dated July 1829 (RA 24715) identifies the vase more clearly: ‘A superb Vase and Cover of fine old Sevres royal blue ground supported by four Dolphins upon a Pedestal of the same material mounted in or-moulu, 14 In. high.’

  • Medium and techniques

    Soft-paste porcelain, bleu nouveau ground, gilded decoration and gilt bronze

    Measurements

    32.5 x 23.1 x 18.8 cm (whole object)

    32.5 cm (Height) (with fittings)

  • Place of Production

    Sèvres [France]


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