A pair of Dutch over-decorated Chinese porcelain covered vases
A pair of late Louis XV gilt bronze-mounted Chinese porcelain covered vases – circa 1760
The porcelain Qianlong Period (1736-1795) over-decorated in Europe in the 18th Century
Height: 41.5 cm. (16 ¼ in.) Width: 17.5 cm. (7 in.)
Diameter of base: 11.5 cm. (4 ½ in.)
Provenance
A château in eastern France, by descent since the 19th Century
Comparative Literature
A.Forray-Carlier, S. Legrand-Rossi and B. Quette, De bronze et d’or: bronzes dorés du musée Nissim de Camondo, Paris, 2024, pp. 54-57.
These vases belong to a small group, no doubt the production of the same marchand-mercier, whose porcelain was overpainted in truité fashion in order to imitate Chinese crackle-glazed grey wares. The material of the body underneath the over-painting has long been debated, but following the latest research, is now widely accepted to be 18th Century Chinese porcelain.
The group includes the following identically mounted vases:
- A pair sold Sotheby’s Monaco, 11 December 1999, lot 102 for FF 1,112,500, later exhibited by Galerie Aveline, Paris, then sold Aguttes, Paris, 11 June 2012, lot 156 for €231,600
- A pair in the Musée Nissim de Camondo in Paris, sold from collection of Jacques Doucet in 1912, then from the collection of Erich Max Benedikt Goldschmidt-Rothschild in Berlin on 23-25 March 1931, and acquired by Moïse de Camondo in May 1931 from Bensimon for 75,000 francs. This pair is discussed at length in Forray-Carlier et al., cit., pp. 54-57
- A pair in the Musée Condé, at the Château de Chantilly, acquired by Eugène Lami on behalf of the Duc d’Aumale from the dealer Félix Lajoie on 7 August 1846 (lacking their covers)