18th century rocaille cruet stand with bouquets of rose and tulip, Aprey faience

Rocaille cruet stand of navette form in APREY faience. The body displays elegant, strongly modelled relief with scrolls, foliate volutes, shells and combed ornament, characteristic of the finest productions of the second half of the eighteenth century. The openwork upper plate accommodates the containers and stoppers, organising the piece as both a functional and a decorative object.

The stand bears a refined polychrome decoration of full-blown roses, tulips, mixed flowers and small scattered blossoms. The painter arranges the compositions in the manner of the German flower repertoire, with remarkable fluency of brushwork. The relief is richly heightened with manganese purple in fine lines, borders, combed motifs and diminishing dotted friezes, creating a lively play of rhythm and light across the surface. This mode of ornamentation belongs to the great period of the APREY manufactory under the PARIS family, when the workshop develops an aesthetic subtly influenced by STRASBOURG while asserting its own identity.

Marks underneath: AP (partially erased) and G (painter's mark).
APREY manufactory, PARIS period, circa 1765–1785.

Dimensions
Length: 25.8 cm
Width: 15.4 cm
Height: 10.2 cm

Condition report
Excellent condition. Minor firing bubbles and usual restorations. Sharp relief, exceptional quality in the borders and bouquets, and a perfectly balanced palette. A collector's piece of rare quality, combining elegance of form with decorative virtuosity.


The APREY manufactory occupies a distinctive place in eighteenth century French faience. Founded by Baron Jacques LALLEMANT DE FONTAINE, it rapidly attracted highly skilled modellers and painters already trained in the aesthetics of STRASBOURG, SCEAUX and LUNÉVILLE. Under the PARIS family, the workshop reaches a remarkable maturity. Forms adopt a vigorous, highly personal rocaille vocabulary, providing a dynamic support for an exceptionally varied decorative repertoire.
APREY painters develop a production of outstanding richness. Bouquets – from the full-blown central rose to the slender tulip and isolated sprigs – are treated with an expressive freedom of brushwork. Palettes combine colours in distinctive harmonies. The manufactory also produces chinoiseries, fantastical birds, landscapes and elaborate rocaille compositions. This diversity appears in the painted marks, often formed of the letters AP accompanied by an initial corresponding to individual decorators.
This formal and decorative richness explains the significant presence of APREY faience in major public collections.
A piece comparable in form and decorative quality is held by the NASJONALMUSEET in Oslo [1]. The MUSÉE DES BEAUX ARTS DE REIMS [2] preserves a piece displaying a tulip in manganese red, antimony yellow and cobalt blue highlights similar to our decoration. A bouquet with a central full-blown rose and a diminishing dotted border appears on a plate in the METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART [3]. The VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM holds an important group of eighteen APREY pieces, several of which show the same characteristic combed effects [4]. The BRITISH MUSEUM also preserves an APREY faience. The GETTY further documents several APREY pieces photographed by WILLIAM CHAFFERS.

These parallels confirm the position of our cruet stand among the finest productions of APREY and its relevance both for the study of French faience and for a discerning collection.

With its rocaille navette form, its function as a cruet stand, the quality of its decoration and the clarity of its marks, this piece stands firmly within this museum corpus while offering collectors a rare combination of formal elegance and pictorial richness.


[1] NASJONALMUSEET, Oslo, "Krydderbeholder", faience, 1730–1780.
[2] MUSÉE DES BEAUX-ARTS, Reims, "Assiette", faience, 18th century. Inv. 892.4.461.
[3] METROPOLITAN MUSEUM, New York, "Plate", faience, second half of the 18th century. Inv. 24.214.1.
[4] VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM, London, "Dessert serving dish", c. 1780 ; "Plate", 18th century ; "Plate", faience, 18th century. Inv. C.246-1951, 484-1870 and CIRC.56-1920.