Urn
Artist
Henri-Martin Prevost
(French, active 1757 - 1797)
Manufacturer
Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
(French, 1756 - present)
Date1793
MediumSoft-paste porcelain with bleu nouveau ground, enamal, gilding and copper alloy mounts with mercury gilding
DimensionsOverall: 10 1/2 × 5 1/2 inches (26.67 × 13.97 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number33-1580/1
On View
On viewGallery Location
- 123
Collections
DescriptionCovered vase in royal blue, decorated with two monogram medallions, mounted in chased ormulu and having two ormulu voluted handles.Gallery LabelThe Sèvres porcelain manufacturer called upon the skills of fondeurs-ciseleurs (metal-casters and finishers) to enhance this pair of urns with elaborate gilded mounts. The first mounted Sèvres vases were recorded in 1764, but Chinese porcelains had been set in precious and semi-precious metals beginning in the Middle Ages, an indication of the medium's status as a rare and precious material deserving of such expense and treatment. Gilded mounts became very fashionable in 18th-century France and were also applied to furniture pieces. Just a year before mounted porcelains were introduced, Sèvres developed the deep, royal blue glaze (bleu nouveau) that serves as the ground for the unidentified "FB" monogram.
Madame Dhainaut, Paris, by May 19, 1924;
Her sale, Collection de Madame Dhainaut, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, May 19, 1924, lot 45;
George Blumenthal (1858-1941), Paris, by December 1, 1932;
Purchased at his sale, Collection de M. George Blumenthal, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, December 1-2, 1932, lot 92, by Lacroix for French and Company, New York, stock no. 38993, 1932-December 15, 1933 [1];
Purchased from French and Company by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1933.
NOTES:
[1] Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, French and Company Stock Sheets, box 45, folder 2. Copy in NAMA curatorial files.
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