Page 105 - Pascal Izarn catalogue 2024
P. 105
A LATE LOUIS XV GILT BRONZE-MOUNTED
EGYPTIAN PORPHYRY COVERED VASE –
CIRCA 1770
The porphyry mortar 16th-17th Century
Height: 46 cm. (18 in.) Width: 29 cm. (11 ½ in.) Depth: 21.5 cm. (8 ½ in.)
Width and depth of base: 14.2 cm. (5 ½ in.)
PROVENANCE
Collection of M. P. M…, sold Ader, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 5-6
December 1957, lot 41, illustrated pl. XI
Collection of M. M., New York, sold Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 20 March
1959, lot 32, illustrated pl. X
Sold Ader Picard Tajan, Hôtel George V, Paris, 21 June 1989, lot 50
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
C. Bremer-David et al., Decorative Arts: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue of
the Collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1993, p. 160, no. 272.
P. Malgouyres, Porphyre, La pierre pourpre, des Ptolémées aux Bonaparte,
Paris, 2003.
D. Del Bufalo, Porphyry: Red imperial porphyry. Power and religion, Turin,
2012, p. 203 (similar mortar models illustrated).
The taste for mounting hard stones in gilt bronze begins with Louis XIV,
who ordered porphyry vessels from a network of Italian suppliers and
had them mounted when they arrived in France for positions of the
highest prestige. At Versailles for instance, the Hall of Mirrors still to this
day boasts numerous grand examples. In the 18th Century the Parisian
marchands-merciers broadened this taste amongst their clientele much in
same way as they did with mounted Chinese porcelain.
Great admirers included Louis XV’s last mistress, Madame du Barry, and Marc-René d’Argenson, marquis de Voyer whose Parisian hôtel particulier by the
mid-1760s contained some of the first neoclassical works of French decorative art. The connoisseur-collector Augustin Blondel de Gagny’s series of
sales soon after his death in 1776 were high-water marks of the history of collecting and contained numerous examples. The most celebrated collection
of all was that of the duc d’Aumont, directeur des Menus-Plaisirs at his opulent hôtel particulier on the Place Louis XV (now the Hôtel Crillon, Place de
la Concorde). There, the ‘à la romaine’ décor of the petit salon took direct inspiration from the
duc’s collections, with the mounts on some of his vases being repeated on the wall panelling. The
sale held after Aumont’s death in 1782 included several mounted hard stone objects that were
acquired by Louis XVI for the future musée du Louvre.
The marchand-mercier who had this vase made started with an Egyptian porphyry mortar. He
combined it with a suitable cover also in Egyptian porphyry and then had the gilt bronze mounts
made by a talented Parisian bronzier, whose identity remains unknown. The result was the
transformation of an already precious object into something even more desirable to collectors
fascinated by antiquity.
An important design inspiration was undoubtably the collection of drawings published in 1770
by Pierre-Elisabeth de Fontanieu, Intendant and Contrôleur général des meubles de la couronne.
Fontanieu’s Collection de vases inventés, et dessinés par Mr de Fontanieu “pour servir aux tourneurs
et à ceux qui ornent les vases, comme fondeurs et ciseleurs”1 contains a strikingly similar lidded
vessel mounted with a finial, volute-like handles and a turned socle base (fig. 1). The genius of the
marchand-mercier was to marry a porphyry mortar to this design.
The vase’s mounts can be compared with other porphyry objects adorned in gilt-bronze in Paris
circa 1770 which illustrate the spread of the goùt grec. These include:
- a cup mounted on a pedestal dated 1761 in the Louvre (invs. F 783 C and OA5180)
- a pot pourri vase with curved handles scrolled with acanthus leaves in the Getty Museum
(Bremer-David, op. cit., no. 272; inv. 73.DJ.88)
Vincent Bastien, Doctor in History of Art
Fig. 1 – Pierre-Elisabeth de Fontanieu,
unnumbered plate from Collection de vases…,
1770 (and detail of the vase on the left)
London, Victoria & Albert Museum (28993:7)
91
EGYPTIAN PORPHYRY COVERED VASE –
CIRCA 1770
The porphyry mortar 16th-17th Century
Height: 46 cm. (18 in.) Width: 29 cm. (11 ½ in.) Depth: 21.5 cm. (8 ½ in.)
Width and depth of base: 14.2 cm. (5 ½ in.)
PROVENANCE
Collection of M. P. M…, sold Ader, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 5-6
December 1957, lot 41, illustrated pl. XI
Collection of M. M., New York, sold Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 20 March
1959, lot 32, illustrated pl. X
Sold Ader Picard Tajan, Hôtel George V, Paris, 21 June 1989, lot 50
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
C. Bremer-David et al., Decorative Arts: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue of
the Collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1993, p. 160, no. 272.
P. Malgouyres, Porphyre, La pierre pourpre, des Ptolémées aux Bonaparte,
Paris, 2003.
D. Del Bufalo, Porphyry: Red imperial porphyry. Power and religion, Turin,
2012, p. 203 (similar mortar models illustrated).
The taste for mounting hard stones in gilt bronze begins with Louis XIV,
who ordered porphyry vessels from a network of Italian suppliers and
had them mounted when they arrived in France for positions of the
highest prestige. At Versailles for instance, the Hall of Mirrors still to this
day boasts numerous grand examples. In the 18th Century the Parisian
marchands-merciers broadened this taste amongst their clientele much in
same way as they did with mounted Chinese porcelain.
Great admirers included Louis XV’s last mistress, Madame du Barry, and Marc-René d’Argenson, marquis de Voyer whose Parisian hôtel particulier by the
mid-1760s contained some of the first neoclassical works of French decorative art. The connoisseur-collector Augustin Blondel de Gagny’s series of
sales soon after his death in 1776 were high-water marks of the history of collecting and contained numerous examples. The most celebrated collection
of all was that of the duc d’Aumont, directeur des Menus-Plaisirs at his opulent hôtel particulier on the Place Louis XV (now the Hôtel Crillon, Place de
la Concorde). There, the ‘à la romaine’ décor of the petit salon took direct inspiration from the
duc’s collections, with the mounts on some of his vases being repeated on the wall panelling. The
sale held after Aumont’s death in 1782 included several mounted hard stone objects that were
acquired by Louis XVI for the future musée du Louvre.
The marchand-mercier who had this vase made started with an Egyptian porphyry mortar. He
combined it with a suitable cover also in Egyptian porphyry and then had the gilt bronze mounts
made by a talented Parisian bronzier, whose identity remains unknown. The result was the
transformation of an already precious object into something even more desirable to collectors
fascinated by antiquity.
An important design inspiration was undoubtably the collection of drawings published in 1770
by Pierre-Elisabeth de Fontanieu, Intendant and Contrôleur général des meubles de la couronne.
Fontanieu’s Collection de vases inventés, et dessinés par Mr de Fontanieu “pour servir aux tourneurs
et à ceux qui ornent les vases, comme fondeurs et ciseleurs”1 contains a strikingly similar lidded
vessel mounted with a finial, volute-like handles and a turned socle base (fig. 1). The genius of the
marchand-mercier was to marry a porphyry mortar to this design.
The vase’s mounts can be compared with other porphyry objects adorned in gilt-bronze in Paris
circa 1770 which illustrate the spread of the goùt grec. These include:
- a cup mounted on a pedestal dated 1761 in the Louvre (invs. F 783 C and OA5180)
- a pot pourri vase with curved handles scrolled with acanthus leaves in the Getty Museum
(Bremer-David, op. cit., no. 272; inv. 73.DJ.88)
Vincent Bastien, Doctor in History of Art
Fig. 1 – Pierre-Elisabeth de Fontanieu,
unnumbered plate from Collection de vases…,
1770 (and detail of the vase on the left)
London, Victoria & Albert Museum (28993:7)
91
