An Este white porcelain figure group of a mother and child, 1779

The Hector Binney Collection, Sotheby’s, London, 5 December 1989, lot 53.

Jean-Pierre Varion appears to have first worked at the Vincennes factory and is listed in the records as a sculptor between 1749-1752 (G. Le Chevallier-Chevignard, La manufacture de porcelain de Sèvres, Paris, 1908, p. 151). Later, between 1760-65, he was employed as a sculptor at the Antonibon factory at Nove, near Venice, at which point he marries Fiorina Fabris, the daughter of a potter. After leaving Nove, working briefly in Bologna and Modena, the couple settled in 1778 in Este, a town and comune of the Province of Padua, in the Veneto region of northern Italy, where he partnered with goldsmith Gerolamo Franchini to found a factory. When Varion died in 1780/81 his models were continued by the factory. Two Este figures, attributed to Varion, depicting St. John and the Virgin, marked respectively ‘Este’ ‘1783’ and ‘Este’, are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, accession nos. C.97A-1952/C.97-1952, illustrated in A. Mottola Molfino, L'arte della porcellana in Italia, Il Veneto E La Toscana, vol. I, Busto Arsizio 1976, tavs. 329/330.

Related Literature

L. Melegati, Le Porcellane Europee al Castello Sforzesco, Milan 1999, p. 58.