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A LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED AND MEISSEN PORCELAIN GARNITURE
- THE MEISSEN VASES CIRCA 1750, THE ANIMALS CIRCA 1745-50

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A LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED AND MEISSEN PORCELAIN GARNITURE
THE MEISSEN VASES CIRCA 1750, THE ANIMALS CIRCA 1745-50
Estimate
(Set Currency)
    £60,000 - £100,000
  • ($90,960 - $151,600)

Sale Information

Sale 7900
A View from the Spanish Steps - The Collection of Maria Angiolillo
15 July 2010
London, King Street

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Lot Description

A LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED AND MEISSEN PORCELAIN GARNITURE
THE MEISSEN VASES CIRCA 1750, THE ANIMALS CIRCA 1745-50
Comprising a baluster vase and a pair of trumpet-shaped vases, the central vase and cover painted with monkeys and lions, the flanking vases with animals in various poses, the reverses with flowers, each vase on a pierced rococo ormolu base cast with rockwork and scrolls, applied with Meissen animals including a camel, a goat, rabbits, monkeys, cows, sheep and lions, left base with restored section to upper part, cover broken through and restored, further damages and repairs
Central vase: 12 3/8 in. (31 cm.) high
Flanking vases: 9 1/16 in. (23 cm.) high (3)

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Lot Notes

This exquisite Louis XV ormolu and Meissen porcelain garniture is a splendid example of the fashion for pittoresque ormolu-mounted objets, combining ormolu with precious materials, which were invented and designed by marchand-merciers. These powerful Paris dealers, who were based near their elegant clièntele, imported exotic porcelain and lacquer, Sèvres and Meissen porcelain, marble, hardstones and pietra dura, which they incorporated in luxurious and fanciful objets in the latest fashion. Lazare Duvaux was one of the most successful of these dealers, and his Livre Journal compiled between 1749 and 1758, lists various similar items in porcelaine de Saxe supplied to his most important clients including the Marquise de Pompadour (L. Courajod, Livre Journal de Lazare Duvaux 1748-1758, Paris, 1873, 2 vols.).

Garnitures consisting of three ormolu-mounted vases were among the most expensive wares supplied by Duvaux, but the present example is particularly fine due to the quality of the decoration to the porcelain and that of the mounts. Particularly noteworthy is the stalacmite, or dripping rockwork motif, which also appears on the celebrated bassin executed by Jean-Claude Duplessis, which was presented by Louis XV to the Sultan of Turkey in 1742 (P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Francais du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1987, p. 23, fig. 9)

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