Object Description
Set of three large Sèvres style porcelain vases with gilt bronze pedestals
French, Early 20th Century
Large Vase: height 162cm, width 63cm, depth 48cm
Large Vases Pedestal: height 66cm, width 48cm, depth 48cm
Smaller Vases: height 141cm, width 60cm, depth 44cm
Smaller Vase Pedestals: height 66cm, width 43cm, depth 43cm
This beautiful and important collection of three Sèvres style vases forms an outstanding set. The three pieces, though not a directly matching set, combine to create a group which is overwhelmingly similar in style and composition. The largest vase stands some twenty centimetres taller than the two smaller (and matching) pieces, and this lends the group a sense of symmetry and propriety. The ormolu mounts that adorn each vase are virtually identical in construction and character apart from the section immediately below each vase. From the base, to the handles and to the finial, the mounts on each serve to link the form of one vase to its partners; and, in a similar vein, the paintings that decorate the front and the back of each piece are stylistically unified and compositionally cohesive between all three vases, mixing the Neoclassical grandeur of the designs with a Rococo beauty and ‘air de fantaisie’.
Each piece is of ovoid shape, adorned with intricately cast ormolu mounts. The base of each vase is especially elaborate: each is square in profile with canted corners and is mounted with an assortment of gilt bronze elements, such as acanthus leaves, shields, bunched and draped fabric, and dangling tassels. Above each vase’s rich dark blue-ground porcelain socle is surmounted an ormolu circular foliate mount. From this, on each vase, step a pair of gilt handles. Each is as elaborate in construction as the bases beow: the handle is formed from an acanthus leaf wrapped fluted column, upon which, as a capital, sits a lyre, the arms of which gradually mutate into scrolling acanthus leaves. Behind the head of each lyre-topped handle is a putto seated on the vase’s shoulder. Continuing the theme of elaborate gilt bronze mounts, the finial that surmounts each vase comprises two birds courting atop their nest.
The scenes painted on the front of each vase are similarly complementary. Each is situated within an elaborate scrolling gilt framed cartouche. On the largest vase, the front scene illustrates two women being approached by a male suitor; the scenes on the smaller vases depict figures enjoying the countryside with horses and dogs. The overall theme is one of courtly life and love, typically Rococo in sentiment. Each painting is executed in a similar colour palette, the dominant tones being pastel shades of blue, pink, and yellow. The painted scenes on the reverse of each vase, now framed within less elaborate gilt frames, represent landscape idylls, whether pastorals of rivers and lakes or of countryside castles.
Each vase stands on a 21st Century gilt bronze pedestal, the form of which is after a 19th Century French wooden prototype. Each pedestal is supported by four cabriole legs and is topped by a piece of lapis lazuli, the colour of which complements the blue-ground colour of the porcelain of each vase.