Vase Duplessis

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Title/s

Vase Duplessis

Maker/s

Vincennes Porcelain Manufactory (factory)

Duplessis, Jean-Claude Chambellan, père (designer) [ULAN info: French designer (c. 1795-1774)]

Collection

L.C.G. Clarke

Category

porcelain
soft-paste porcelain

Name

vase

School/Style

Rococo

Description

Soft-paste porcelain vase decorated with an underglaze blue ground, and panels painted in polychrome enamels with flowers, and gilding.

Soft-paste porcelain, moulded, and decorated with an underglaze bleu lapis ground, painting in greyish-green, yellow, pale orange, dark pink, pale purple, and grey enamels, and gilding; underside of base is unglazedexcept for the interior of the stem. The base has an eight-lobed edge decorated with eight moulded cockle shells alternately face up and face down. The foot of the vase has an eight-lobed edge and rises into an incurved stem which expands into the shallow bulb-shaped lower part of the vase. The sides of the vase are trumpet-shaped, and it has eight scallops round the rim. On each side, is a handle rising from the foot into an elaborate scroll, joined to the widest part of the bulb and rising above to form a hollow foliated projection. The decoration is of alternating areas of bleu lapis lightly marbled with gilding and white panels painted on each side of the upper part with a spray of flowers which ignores the blue divisions. On the stem the white panels are decorated underglaze in blue with four trefoil-shaped leaves with three dots above.The edges of the bleu lapis areas, the edges of the handles, the upper part of the base and the edges of the shells are gilded. The interior of the vase is undecorated

Production Notes

Although similar in form to C.8-1961 the vase is not an exact pair, the foot, stem and lower part of the body being more heavily gilded.

Production Place

Vincennes (factory) (place)

France (factory) (country)

French (factory) (nationality)

Colmar, Paris (designer) (place)

France (designer) (country)

French (designer) (nationality)

Technique Description

soft-paste porcelain, thrown, and moulded, decorated underglaze with a bleu lapis ground, painted overglaze in enamels, and gilded; base unglazed

Dimensions

height: (whole): 23.9 cm
diameter: (rim): 17.2 cm
diameter: (foot): 12.3 cm

Period

mid 18th Century
Louis XV

Date

circa 1751 to 1752

Provenance

bequeathed: Clarke, Louis Colville Gray 1960 (Filtered for: Applied Arts collection)

Purchased from Cecil Gould by Louis C.G. Clarke

Louis C.G. Clarke Bequest, 1960

Inscriptions/Marks

1. mark
   Position: on base
   Method: painted in blue enamel
   Content: crossed Ls with a dot between
   Interpretation: factory mark
   

Documentation

1. Eriksen, Svend (1987) Sèvres Porcelain: Vincennes and Sèvres 1740-1800, London: Faber and Faber Limited [page: pp. 242-3]
   [comments: Publ. Illustrated and discussed, p. 242, no. 61, illustrated on p. 243.]
2. Troude, Albert (n.d. (1897)) Choix de Modèles de la Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres appartenant au Musée Céramique, Colmar, Paris
   [comments: Ref. pl. 100 Vase à fleur uni, Modèle de Duplessis, Ht 0.20 m]
3. Verlet, Pierre (1953) Sèvres, Le XVIIIe Siècle, Colmar, Paris
   [comments: Cf. Vol. I, pl. 6 an analogous example in the Louvre]
4. Paris, Grand Palais (1977) Porcelaines de Vincennes, Les Origines de Sèvres, Colmar, Paris: Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux [page: p. 142]
   [comments: Cf. p. 142, no. 426, an analogous example in the Musée du Louvre (OA 7610), marked with interlaced Ls and three dots. H. 23.8 cm]
5. Préaud, Tamara (1991) La Porcelaine de Vincennes, Colmar, Paris: Adam Biro [page: pp. 45, 159]
   [comments: Cf. A pair in the Minneapolis Museum of Art, with analogous handles and decoration, but standing on rock and plant bases supported by an ormolu mount, p. 45 colour pl., and p. 159, no. 136, dated c. 1752-3. H. 26 cm. These have the same mark as the Fitzwilliam's example, which the authors state enables the date to be placed between October 1752 and during 1753. The note that the surviving designs do not bear the name of the vase.]
6. Roth, Linda Horvitz (2000) French Eighteenth-Century Porcelain at the Wadsworth Atheneum, The J. Pierpont Morgan Collection, Hartford, Connecticut: Trustees of the Wadsworth Atheneum
   [comments: Ref. and Cf. Under no. 59, a vase Duplessis with different handles, painted in monochrome crimson with children and clouds, see information about the different variants of the form, and illustrations of two designs, and three models. The handles and scalloped rim of the Fitzwilliam's example conform to fig. 59-1 on p. 105. The author notes that 'Several bleu lapis examples fired in 1748 are recorded as having been sold between 1752 and 1754, and could describe the examples in the Louvre or the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.']
7. Sotheby's (2003) British and European Ceramics, Olympia, London: Sotheby's [page: p. 49] April 2003)
   [comments: Cf. p. 49, lot 80, a Vase Duplessis of this form with bleu celeste ground and reserves painted with birds and flowers. Painted by Louis-Jean Thévenet père. Date letter A. Estimate £8-12,000; fetched]

Other Notes

Accession Number

C.9-1961 (Applied Arts)
(Reference Number: 82613; Input Date: 2003-01-29 / Last Edit: 2011-07-22)