A documented Goût Grec vase

A late Louis XV goût grec gilt bronze-mounted
Chinese famille verte porcelain vase – circa 1765-1770 

The porcelain Kangxi (1662-1722)

Height: 51 cm. (20 in.)    Width: 44 cm. (17 ½ in.)

Provenance

Claude-Pierre-Maximilien Radix de Sainte-Foy (1736-1810); his sale, Paris, 22 April 1782, lot 134 (sold 490 livres to Langlier)
Jacques Langlier (1730-1814); his sale, Paris, 24 April 1786, lot 192 (sold 400 livres to Dulac)
Antoine-Charles Dulac (1729-1811)
The Collection of Giuseppe Rossi

Of especially large size, this superb vase is a rare example of the use of famille verte porcelain in the repertoire of objets montés promoted so fashionably by the marchands-merciers. It is also remarkable for being documented in not one but two late 18th century Parisian sales, giving us a rare insight into the dynamic trade in works of art at that time.

The vase is first recorded in the sale catalogue of the collection of Claude-Pierre-Maximilien Radix de Sainte-Foy, held on 22 April 1782 in Paris. It is notable that this catalogue was written under the direction of Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Brun (1748-1813), the picture dealer, celebrated expert and husband of the painter Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun.

The present vase is included in the section of the catalogue dedicated to “Coloured Chinese porcelains” as lot 134 and is described as follows:
Un vase forme d’urne ouverte fond blanc, à dessins de plantes et de papillons coloriés, enrichi de gorge à cannelure, de têtes de lions portant anneaux, de culots, panneaux brettés et piedouche à feuilles de soleil sur son socle quarré Hauteur 19 pouces [51.4 cm] largeur 15 pouces [40.6 cm]

Every detail on the present vase is described, including the flowers and butterflies on the porcelain, the lion masks holding rings and the fluted collar; it also significantly described the vase as ‘ouverte’ i.e. conceived without a lid. The slight discrepancy in width can be explained by the fact that the cataloguer in 1782 did not include the lion masks when measuring the width.Numerous lots in the catalogue are accompanied by annotations and designs illustrating the objects by Charles Germain de Saint-Aubin (1721-1786), including the present vase, reproduced next to its lot number. In his annotations, Saint-Aubin also noted the hammer price of 490 livres, as well as the purchaser of the vase, Langlier.

The Sainte-Foy vase belongs to a distinct group of vases with similar bold à la Grecque mounts and unusual choices of highly coloured Chinese porcelain in contrast to those usually employed by the marchands-merciers, which tended to be largely either powder blue or celadon wares. Other vases in the group include:

  • a turquoise-glazed Ming dynasty Chinese garden stool with fluted collar, lion’s masks and leaf-cast socle virtually identical to the Sainte-Foy vase. This vase, now in the Château de Versailles, was acquired by Louis XVI at the sale of the Duc d’Aumont’s collection in 1782
  • a second one without a collar, but with the same handles, lion masks and socle as the Versailles/Duc d’Aumont vase, sold Christie’s London, 13-14 November 1984, lot 671
  • a third one with richer mounts and even larger in scale, but nevertheless clearly related to this group, sold Sotheby’s Paris, 15 December 2010, lot 93 (€960,750)

 

 Late Louis XV gilt bronze-mounted Chinese porcelain garden stool, circa 1770
Versailles, musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon (T 423 C)

Radix de Sainte-Foy

Claude-Pierre-Maximilien Radix de Sainte-Foy (1736-1810) began his diplomatic career as the attaché of the Embassy in Vienna and was then promoted to the more lucrative post of Treasurer of the Navy. Upon the accession of Louis XVI to the throne, the Comte de Vergennes (1719-1787) became Secretary of State of Foreign affairs. He surrounded himself with competent colleagues to develop the diplomatic corps including Radix de Sainte-Foy, who was initially then sent to the court of the Duke of Zweibrücken in present-day Rhineland.

 
However, Radix de Sainte-Foy quickly returned to finance, and became from 1776 Surintendant des finances for the Comte d’Artois (1757-1836). Thanks to his various responsibilities and to his connection to Vergennes, Sainte-Foy rapidly built a considerable personal fortune, with which he purchased the Château de Neuilly as well as a hôtel particulier on the rue Basse-du-Rempart in Paris, for which he commissioned Jean-François Chalgrin (1736-1811) to complete the interior decoration.

 

Radix de Sainte-Foy’s rapid rise in fortune and close connection to the Comte d’Artois gained him a great deal of enmity. Louis Petit de Bachaumont wrote, “this financer is impertinent in his luxury”. Accused of embezzlement by Necker (1732-1804), directeur général des Finances from 1777, he was forced to flee to London in 1782 and to sell a large part of his collection. He was eventually able to make amends and played an important role in the counter-Revolution, becoming chef du cabinet secret des Tuileries when Louis XVI was detained there. Though incarcerated during the Revolution, he was subsequently liberated, and in 1798 purchased the former Abbaye d’Ourscamp, which had become national property. Radix de Sainte-Foy died in 1810.


The hôtel particulier on the rue Basse-du-Rempart was constructed by Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart (1739-1813) for Bouret de Vézelay and was exceptionally luxurious. Its collections included furniture in Boulle marquetry but also numerous Chinese and Japanese porcelains. Other vases from Radix de Sainte-Foy’s collection are today in the British Royal Collection including a pair of Chinese turquoise porcelain vases with fish scale decoration (RCIN 478.1-2) and a garniture of three vases in Sèvres blue-ground porcelain decorated with soldiers (RCIN 2289.1, 2289.2 and 2290). He would have met all the most fashionable artisans and marchands-merciers of Paris through his mistress, the Duchesse de Mazarin, a noted patron of the celebrated bronzier Pierre Gouthière and the architect François-Joseph Bélanger.


Jacques Langlier

Jacques Langlier (circa 1730-1814), who acquired the vase in the Sainte-Foy sale of 1782, was a hat merchant, but was better known as a dealer in paintings and objects of curiosity. Installed in the quai de la Mégisserie, he moved to the rue Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie and became known in 1786 as a marchand-mercier and a picture dealer. Following financial difficulties, Langlier was forced to sell a considerable part of his collection on 24 April 1786, including pictures, furniture and seventeen lots of Asian porcelain. Among these lots, the present vase can be identified as lot 192 where it was sold to Antoine-Charles Dulac for 400 livres.


Antoine-Charles Dulac

Antoine-Charles Dulac (1729-1811) was a painter and member of the Académie de Saint-Luc from 1758 and was very active in public sales up to the end of his life, purchasing paintings in 1803 from the auction of François-Louis-Joseph de Laborde-Méréville. His father Antoine was a marchand and must have been related to the celebrated Jean Dulac, ‘marchand-gantier-parfumeur et bijoutier’, based on the rue Saint Honoré and creator of the famous ‘vases Dulac.’