A pair of late Louis XV gilt bronze-mounted Chinese celadon fleuri porcelain vases aux enfants triton
circa 1770
The porcelain Qianlong Period (1736-1795)
Height: 35.5 cm. (14 in.) Width: 22.5 cm. (8 ¾ in.)
Width and depth of bases: 12 cm. (4 ¾ in.)
Provenance
Marie-Joseph-Louis d’Albert d’Ailly, 6th Duc de Chaulnes (1741-1792) and Marie-Anne Lambert (d. 1792), his second wife
Sold Sotheby’s Parke-Bernet, New York, 7 April 1979, lot 28
Maurice Segoura, Paris and New York
Collection of Félix Houphouët-Boigny (1905-1993),
Sold Sotheby’s New York, 19 November 1993, lot 19
Collection of Ann and Gordon Getty, San Francisco
Comparative Literature
These vases are recorded in the inventory following the death of Marie-Anne d’Albert d’Ailly, the wife of the 6th Duc de Chaulnes, where the distinctive design of the bases is precisely described leaving no doubt that it refers to this pair.
Two other pairs are known, both with different design to the base. They have traditionally been thought to come from the collection of the painter François Boucher (1703-1770), in whose posthumous inventory they appear:
- Sold Sotheby’s London, 4 April 2012, lot 26 (£577,250), illustrated in J. Whitehead, Mobilier et Arts Décoratifs en France au XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1992, p. 158
- Riahi sale, Christie’s Paris, 6 December 2012, lot 14 (£769,250), illustrated in D. Alcouffe et al., Quelques chefs-d’œuvre de la collection Djahanguir Riahi: ameublement français du XVIIIe siècle, Milan, 1999, pp. 217-219.