Couvert Verdun
Decorator
Charles Nicolas Dodin
(French, 1734 - 1803)
Designer
Jean-Claude Duplessis the Elder
(French, 1695 - 1774)
Manufacturer
Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
(French, 1756 - present)
Date1759
MediumSoft-paste porcelain with enamel and gilding
DimensionsOverall: 5 5/8 × 10 7/8 × 6 inches (14.3 × 27.61 × 15.24 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust through exchange of the bequests of Helen F. Spencer, Miriam Babbitt Simpson, Louise W. Withers, Mrs. Inez Grant Parker, John K. Havemeyer, and Linda S. Hall; gifts of the Airy S. Jones Fund, the Laura Nelson Kirkwood Residuary Trust, Mrs. Chauncey McCormick and Mrs. Richard Ely Danielson, Mrs. William H. Chapman, Bertha Hanicke in memory of Paul Willy Hanicke, Barton Hall in memory of his mother, Mrs. Charlotte E. Hall, Mrs. J. Eagles in memory of Jeanne Eagles, Winifrede Repp Railey, and Mrs. Logan Clendening; and other Trust properties
Object number90-36
MarkingsIn blue; painted underneath the base with the factory mark of interlaced L's enclosing the date letter G for 1759, adjacent to the painter's mark "k"
On View
On viewGallery Location
- 122
Collections
DescriptionThe flower vase is oval in plan and has shaped walls with scrollwork "handles" in relief at each side. The rim is set lower at the front than at the back, and there is a partition that runs along the center. The exterior of the vase is decorated with a dark blue ground, set with a colored reserve to the front. The reserve is painted with a rustic scene of two figures of young men in country clothes. One is holding a dog, and the other is gesturing towards a village in the background. This scene is framed by scrolling bands of green ground set over the blue. Green scrolls and husks form a pattern over the blue that follows around the side and under each "handle". A band of green ground is placed around the base over a thin strip of blue, and to the rear there is a green scrolling "Catherine wheel" frame, enclosing a reserve of blue ground. Scrolling bands of green ground also are set along the inside of the top of the central partition and of the rear rim. Thick brightly burnishe dgilding is set over the blue ground in a "caillouté" pattern of pebbles, groups of four dots and amoebae. Gilding also frames the borders of the ground color panels, scrolls and husks, the rims, and hightlights the modelling of the handles. A bold pattern of burnished gilding of circles, lines, and dots is set over the strip of blue ground at the base. Gilding highlights the Catherine wheel frame on the rear, which is set in the center with a finely tooled and partly burnished bouquet of leaves and mixed flowers, including roses and jonquils.Exhibition HistoryLuxury and Passion: Inventing French Porcelain, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, August 13 2022–August 12 2024, no cat.
This very grand flower vase uses all-over gilding called caillouté, meant to evoke a pebbled appearance. This vase likely would have been placed in front of a mirror so both sides could be appreciated. Because plate glass was expensive, the display would have been luxury on top of luxury!
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