Page 49 - catalogue 2018
P. 49
A PAir OF lATE lOUiS XV VASES-
cAnDElABrA (‘VASES DUlAc’)
Sèvres bleu lapis porcelain, circa 1765-1770, the gilt-bronze mounts circa
1770-1774
Model designed by the marchand-mercier Jean Dulac
Height: 43 cm. (17 in.) Width: 28 cm. (11 in.) Depth: 25 cm. (9 ¾ in.)
PrOVEnAncE
With charles Davis, 147 new Bond Street, london, by november
1909, from whom purchased by Duveen Brothers, 21 Old Bond Street,
london for £1,025, and recorded in their london stock book as stock
no. 32334 on fol. 65
Sold by Duveen Brothers, 20 place Vendôme, Paris, 5 December 1911
for FF 25,687.50 to Maurice larivière, 148 rue de longchamp, Paris,
and thence by descent
cOMPArATiVE liTErATUrE
christian Baulez, ‘Sèvres: commandes et achats de Madame du Barry’,
L'Estampille/ L'Objet d'art, no. 257 (April 1992), pp. 51-52
Pierre Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1987, pp.
72-73, figs. 66-67
Shelley M. Bennett and carolyn Sargentson, French Art of the Eighteenth Century at the Huntington, new Haven, 2008, pp. 161-163, no. 57
These spectacular vases, with their bold 'à la Grec' mounts, embody the most robust neoclassicism of the 1760s and 1770s, while reflecting the constant search for
innovation promoted by the marchands-merciers of Paris. This model, created by Jean Dulac using Sèvres porcelain specially commissioned from the factory,
obviously found favour at court, both at home and abroad.
A pair of identical vases can be considered the prime versions of this model, and was delivered to the King of Poland for his use at the Łazienki Palace, Warsaw. They
are signed, by the marchand-mercier Jean Dulac, 'DUlAc MD rUE ST | HOnOrÉ A PAriS | inVEniT'.
Before 1774, a second pair of vases-cloches candelabra of this model and colour was in the possession of Madame du Barry. These candelabra were seized and held
at the château de louveciennes during the revolution and were subsequently transferred to the Palais de luxembourg, where they were described in an inventory
as: '5475 deux vases porcelaine gros bleu renfermant des girondoles à trois bobèches en bronze doré ainsi que le socle et autres ornements dudit vase'. christian Baulez (op.
cit.) traced archival references to these vases back to the moment of du Barry’s decampment from Versailles on louis XV’s death, and identified her vases-cloches
with those that entered the collection of the château de Fontainebleau in 1850 and remain there to this day. We also know that a further pair was possessed by the
duc de la Vrillière, valued at 800 livres in 1777.
Finally, other versions are found at The Huntington (op. cit.), Pavlovsk Palace, St Petersburg, and sold at christie’s new York, 18 May 2006, lot 776.
JEAn DUlAc (1704-1786)
The son of charles Dulac, Jean was born in 1704 and became a marchand-gantier-parfumeur before 1740. First married in 1728, following the death of his first wife
he remarried in 1743. At this date, his furniture and effects were valued at the notable sum of 24,000 livres. He was appointed marchand privilégié du Roi on 16 May
1753 and, following that, marchand-bijoutier. Jean Dulac resided on the rue Saint Honoré, the majority of the building being allotted to the workshops and
parfumerie. His signboard of 'le Berceau d'Or', inherited from his father, appears in several of his bills, while others carry the phrase 'Dulac marchand-gantier-parfumeur
et bijoutier rue Saint Honoré près de l'Oratoire à la tête d'or'.
Dulac appears consistently in the sales register at Sèvres from 1758-1776. He acquired the majority of the production of the vase-cloche model, purchasing a total
of twenty between 1772 and 1779, at prices varying from 60 to 84 livres, dependent on the ground colour - the fond lapis being far more expensive than the green.
By 1774, however, Dulac had sold part of his stock to Pierre Antoine le Baigue, his successor as marchand privilégié du Roi, along with 'Les droits de vente par
commission des porcelaines de la Manufacture de Sèvres dont il tient dépôt'.
Dulac's trade flourished and for several decades he supplied leading members of the French court and European nobility, with clients including the duchesses de
Mazarin and de luynes, the comtesse de Polignac, and the prince de chimay. He retired, childless, in 1774 having made his fortune, but kept an eye over the shop,
which he had rented out following the sale to le Baigue. The latter replaced Dulac as marchand privilégié du roi on 24 February 1775. Dulac died in his house in the
rue Saint Honoré in 1786, leaving his cousin, the painter charles louis clérisseau, as one of his principal heirs.
DUVEEn BrOTHErS
Sir Joseph Duveen, 1st Baron Duveen (1869-1939), perhaps the most significant British art dealer of the first half of the 20th century, gained international fame for
selling European Old Master paintings to American collectors for record prices. However, when in 1909 the family company acquired these vases, the future Baron
Duveen’s father Sir Joseph Joel (1843-1908) had only recently died, leaving his son the stewardship of companies embedded in domestic and European markets for
decorative arts, furniture and tapestries, with premises in london, new York and Paris. The Duveen business records have recently been made digitally available by
the Getty research institute.
These vases are recorded as being sold in December 1911 by Duveen Brothers to Maurice larivière, a Parisian collector. They had been acquired on the london
market from charles Davis, a dealer who some years earlier in 1884 had been entrusted with the cataloguing of Alfred de rothschild’s collections at Halton in
Buckinghamshire. Soon after photographing the vases, Duveen shipped them to the Paris showroom that had recently been purpose-built for them by the architect
rené Sergent in a courtyard behind 20 Place Vendôme, from where they were equally quickly sold to larivière. They remained with his descendants until recently.
43
cAnDElABrA (‘VASES DUlAc’)
Sèvres bleu lapis porcelain, circa 1765-1770, the gilt-bronze mounts circa
1770-1774
Model designed by the marchand-mercier Jean Dulac
Height: 43 cm. (17 in.) Width: 28 cm. (11 in.) Depth: 25 cm. (9 ¾ in.)
PrOVEnAncE
With charles Davis, 147 new Bond Street, london, by november
1909, from whom purchased by Duveen Brothers, 21 Old Bond Street,
london for £1,025, and recorded in their london stock book as stock
no. 32334 on fol. 65
Sold by Duveen Brothers, 20 place Vendôme, Paris, 5 December 1911
for FF 25,687.50 to Maurice larivière, 148 rue de longchamp, Paris,
and thence by descent
cOMPArATiVE liTErATUrE
christian Baulez, ‘Sèvres: commandes et achats de Madame du Barry’,
L'Estampille/ L'Objet d'art, no. 257 (April 1992), pp. 51-52
Pierre Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1987, pp.
72-73, figs. 66-67
Shelley M. Bennett and carolyn Sargentson, French Art of the Eighteenth Century at the Huntington, new Haven, 2008, pp. 161-163, no. 57
These spectacular vases, with their bold 'à la Grec' mounts, embody the most robust neoclassicism of the 1760s and 1770s, while reflecting the constant search for
innovation promoted by the marchands-merciers of Paris. This model, created by Jean Dulac using Sèvres porcelain specially commissioned from the factory,
obviously found favour at court, both at home and abroad.
A pair of identical vases can be considered the prime versions of this model, and was delivered to the King of Poland for his use at the Łazienki Palace, Warsaw. They
are signed, by the marchand-mercier Jean Dulac, 'DUlAc MD rUE ST | HOnOrÉ A PAriS | inVEniT'.
Before 1774, a second pair of vases-cloches candelabra of this model and colour was in the possession of Madame du Barry. These candelabra were seized and held
at the château de louveciennes during the revolution and were subsequently transferred to the Palais de luxembourg, where they were described in an inventory
as: '5475 deux vases porcelaine gros bleu renfermant des girondoles à trois bobèches en bronze doré ainsi que le socle et autres ornements dudit vase'. christian Baulez (op.
cit.) traced archival references to these vases back to the moment of du Barry’s decampment from Versailles on louis XV’s death, and identified her vases-cloches
with those that entered the collection of the château de Fontainebleau in 1850 and remain there to this day. We also know that a further pair was possessed by the
duc de la Vrillière, valued at 800 livres in 1777.
Finally, other versions are found at The Huntington (op. cit.), Pavlovsk Palace, St Petersburg, and sold at christie’s new York, 18 May 2006, lot 776.
JEAn DUlAc (1704-1786)
The son of charles Dulac, Jean was born in 1704 and became a marchand-gantier-parfumeur before 1740. First married in 1728, following the death of his first wife
he remarried in 1743. At this date, his furniture and effects were valued at the notable sum of 24,000 livres. He was appointed marchand privilégié du Roi on 16 May
1753 and, following that, marchand-bijoutier. Jean Dulac resided on the rue Saint Honoré, the majority of the building being allotted to the workshops and
parfumerie. His signboard of 'le Berceau d'Or', inherited from his father, appears in several of his bills, while others carry the phrase 'Dulac marchand-gantier-parfumeur
et bijoutier rue Saint Honoré près de l'Oratoire à la tête d'or'.
Dulac appears consistently in the sales register at Sèvres from 1758-1776. He acquired the majority of the production of the vase-cloche model, purchasing a total
of twenty between 1772 and 1779, at prices varying from 60 to 84 livres, dependent on the ground colour - the fond lapis being far more expensive than the green.
By 1774, however, Dulac had sold part of his stock to Pierre Antoine le Baigue, his successor as marchand privilégié du Roi, along with 'Les droits de vente par
commission des porcelaines de la Manufacture de Sèvres dont il tient dépôt'.
Dulac's trade flourished and for several decades he supplied leading members of the French court and European nobility, with clients including the duchesses de
Mazarin and de luynes, the comtesse de Polignac, and the prince de chimay. He retired, childless, in 1774 having made his fortune, but kept an eye over the shop,
which he had rented out following the sale to le Baigue. The latter replaced Dulac as marchand privilégié du roi on 24 February 1775. Dulac died in his house in the
rue Saint Honoré in 1786, leaving his cousin, the painter charles louis clérisseau, as one of his principal heirs.
DUVEEn BrOTHErS
Sir Joseph Duveen, 1st Baron Duveen (1869-1939), perhaps the most significant British art dealer of the first half of the 20th century, gained international fame for
selling European Old Master paintings to American collectors for record prices. However, when in 1909 the family company acquired these vases, the future Baron
Duveen’s father Sir Joseph Joel (1843-1908) had only recently died, leaving his son the stewardship of companies embedded in domestic and European markets for
decorative arts, furniture and tapestries, with premises in london, new York and Paris. The Duveen business records have recently been made digitally available by
the Getty research institute.
These vases are recorded as being sold in December 1911 by Duveen Brothers to Maurice larivière, a Parisian collector. They had been acquired on the london
market from charles Davis, a dealer who some years earlier in 1884 had been entrusted with the cataloguing of Alfred de rothschild’s collections at Halton in
Buckinghamshire. Soon after photographing the vases, Duveen shipped them to the Paris showroom that had recently been purpose-built for them by the architect
rené Sergent in a courtyard behind 20 Place Vendôme, from where they were equally quickly sold to larivière. They remained with his descendants until recently.
43
