A fine and rare pair of Louis XV ormolu-mounted Chinese crackle-glaze celadon porcelain ewers circa 1735-1740

each pear-shaped celadon vase with brown crackle glaze with unusual red tonality and with two brown biscuit lions' mask handles suspending gilt rings, the shoulders applied with double bands of ju-i lappets, the bases with single bands, all in brown biscuit; the neck surrounded by an ormolu border and with ormolu lip cast with coral and shell motifs, flanked by a voluted handle surmounted by a winged dragon, the spreading foot fitted with an ormolu border cast with shells and foliate motifs.

Collection of Louis-Jean Gaignat, Secrétaire du Roi and Receveur des Consignations, sold, Paris, February 14, 1769, lot 103 (see footnote below)

Anonymous sale at Drouot, Paris, May 12, 1899, lot 1

Stettiner Collection, Paris

Count Hector Baltazzi, Paris

Collection of Anna Thomson Dodge, removed from Rose Terrace, sold, Christie's, London, June 24, 1971, lot 12

Collection of Mr. Habib Sabet, Paris

Collection of Roberto Polo, sold, Ader Tajan, Paris, November 7, 1991, lot 115

P. Kjellberg, Objets montés du Moyen Âge à nos jours, Paris, 2000, illustrated p. 52.

Duveen, A Catalogue of the Works of Art in the Collection of Anna Thomson Dodge, Vol. II, Detroit, 1930, illustrated.

Décoration internationale, December 1987, article about the Roberto Polo collection.

G. Wannenes, Les Bronzes ornementaux et objets montés, Milan, 2004, p. 98.

THE 18TH CENTURY PROVENANCE

The first mention of vases of this type of porcelain known, at the time, as truité fin or céladon craquelé, is in the 1738 inventory of the duc d'Estrees:

"deux grands vases de porcelaine truitée garnie de bronze à dragons 400 livres."

In 1756 the duc de Tallard is recorded as having a pair accompanied by a central third vase.

The inventory which was taken after the death on April 10, 1759 of the collector, Monsieur Gaillard de Gagny, lists

"no 10 - Deux autres buires aussi de porcelaine céladon craquelé avec masques et anneaux en relief, de couleur brune, garnie de pieds et anses à dragons en cuivre ciselé doré d'or moulu. 500 L".

The Gagny vases are described in the catalogue of the sale of his collection held in Paris, March 29, 1762:

no 45 - "deux buires de porcelaine céladon craquelée, garnies chacune d'un pied, d'un cercle et d'une anse, au haut duquel est un dragon en bronze doré: elles portent, en y comprenant la garniture 18 pouces de haut"  sold for 380 livres.

Three pairs of vases céladon craquelé with dragons are listed in the sale of the collection of L.J. Gaignat, held in Paris on February 14, 1769.  Lots 102 and 103 can be identified with this pair on the basis of the drawing in the catalogue by Saint-Aubin.

"Porcelaines craquelées

102 Deux grands Vafes de porcelaine de la Chine, d'environ 19 (51 cm.) pouces de haut d'une belle forme, montés en buire: il y regne deux bandeaux de broderie en relief avec des têtes de chimeres portant anneaux.  Ces ornemens de porcelaine font bruns fans couverte, & ces deux Vafes font garnis de pieds, collets & anfes furmontés d'un dragon; le tout de bronze doré"

The description for lot 103 is essentially identical except that, importantly, it mentions the color as being "craquelé d'un ton un peu rougeâtre."  The present pair is the only pair known to have this coloration.

The final two pairs appear in the sale of the collection of the duc Renaud-César de Choiseul-Praslin, held in Paris, February 18, 1793:

""no 306 - deux grands vases d'ancienne porcelain céladon, montés en buyre avec pieds, anses et bords en cuivre doré, les anses surmontées de deux dragons ailés ... 500 l."  and:

"no. 316 - deux vases de porcelaine, truittés de ton gris clair, à mascarons brun de relief et anneaux pris dans la pièce; il sont montés en forme de buyre, avec collet, anses à dragons, et pieds en cuivre doré d'ormoulu; ancien modèle sur les dessins de Messonier (sic); hauteur 20 pouces"

The inventory taken at the time of Choiseul-Praslin's death completes this information in describing the first pair of "celadon" vases as: deux forts vases en porcelaine de Chine fond bleu clair garnis d'anses, mascarons, bandeaux, piedouches et plinthes dorés d'ormoulu".  This description matches a pair of ewers now in a private collection in New York.  The lot described under no. 316 more closely relates to the Safra pair. 

Three pairs are recorded in the 19th century.  The first sold from the collection of Lord Gwydyr, Grimsthorpe Castle, May 20, 1829, lot 21; another pair sold by the dealer Monvoisin, Paris, December 14, 1841, lot 122 (possibly the Tallard garniture).  The final pair was sold from the collection of Madame de Boissy, Paris, December 11, 1871, lot 9.

Only three other pairs may be identified today, including two pairs in private Parisian collections.  A pair of identical vases with brown biscuit masks and borders, with identical ormolu mounts (with narrow additional band of ormolu around the foot) was sold, Sotheby's, Monaco, July 1, 1995, lot 179.  It had been in the collection of Baron Eugène "B", purchased in Paris in 1885-1889 and exhibited, Musée du Cinquentenaire, Brussels, 1921-1925, later in the Lebaudy collection.

LOUIS-JEAN GAIGNAT (1697-1768)

In 1739 Louis-Jean Gaignat inherited the large fortune of his father, a bourgeois from Nevers and procureur in the Paris parliament.  Shortly after his second marriage, now Ecuyer and Secrétaire du Roi, he set up house in the rue Saint-Nicaise at the Vieux Louvre.  He became receveur des consignations de la chambre des requêts du Palais, a charge that he was to keep until his death on April 11, 1768.

Following the death of his second wife and of his daughter, he moved to the former hôtel de la Ferté, rue de Richelieu where he remained from 1751 until 1768.  The ground floor was given over to offices whereas his collections were exhibited on the first floor; the second floor was occupied by Gaignat himself and the third floor by the servants. 

Gaignat's collection soon became famous.  Originally a book collector like his father, he started to collect paintings and objets d'art after about 1745.  Numerous precious objects were purchased from Lazard-Duvaux.  His passion was no doubt fuelled by loneliness following the death of his wife and daughter, and as noted by Comte Grimm he was advised:

"pour tromper sa douleur, d'acheter et d'amasser des tableaux."

First described briefly by Dezallier d'Argenville in his guide in 1752, the collection required five pages in the 1757 edition.  The eventual sale in 1769 created a great stir among Parisian and international collectors.

MOUNTED ORIENTAL PORCELAIN IN THE 18TH CENTURY

The acquisition of fine oriental ceramics in general and of ormolu-mounted oriental ceramics in particular, was an integral component of the most important collections in the 18th century in Paris.  Such objects were the height of fashion in the Régence period and never went out of style; they were just as collectible at the end of the century as they had been at the beginning.

Ormolu-mounted oriental porcelain was recorded in the most important collections of the day, notably that of the great connoisseur the duc d'Aumont (1709-1782).  A pair of celadon porcelain vases from his collection, now in the Musée du Louvre (illustrated,  D. Alcouffe, A. Dion-Tennenbaum, G. Mabille, Gilt Bronzes in the Louvre, Dijon, 2004,) is fitted with identical ormolu mounts, including the dragon entwined around the handle, and the same mount around the foot.  llustrative of  the continuing fashion for objects of this type, it is known that the duc d'Aumont acquired many objects during the 1770s, and was having objects mounted during this period. He was also purchasing earlier objects.  His collection was dispersed at auction after his death, and the pair of dragon-mounted vases was acquired for Louis XVI at a cost of 1340 livres.

Another pair of ewers in crackle-glaze celadon porcelain with brown biscuit lions masks and band of lappets around the shoulder is also in the Musée du Louvre (illustrated, Alcouffe, et. al., op.cit. p. 91, no. 41).  They are mounted in ormolu circa 1740-50 to form ewers with foliate scrolled lips, handles and base.  These ewers were in the antechamber of the apartments of the duc d'Orléans, as was a single large crackle-glaze vase, also with biscuit bands, and mounted as a vase (ibid. no.42, pp. 92-93.)

Also indicative of how highly prized were objects of this sort is the fact that they were very carefully described in 18th century sale catalogues and inventories as seen in the descriptions above.  It is also of interest to note the values ascribed to these objects.  The first inventory taken for M. de Gagny values one of his pairs of ewers at 500 livres; this subsequently sold for 380 livres.  Interestingly, the Choiseul-Praslin pair sold for 500 livres in 1793, at the height of the Revolution.  As noted above, Louis XVI paid the extraordinary price of 1340 livres for the pair of ewers from the duc d'Aumont's collection.

THE ORMOLU MOUNTS

The ormolu mounts on each of the examples recorded above are identical, including the leaf tip and shell cast border around the foot.  They are all constructed, assembled and mounted in the same manner which clearly indicates that this work was produced in one, as yet unidentified, workshop.  Ormolu mounts had supplanted the earlier silver mounts which were mounted on oriental porcelains at the turn of the century.