Large Pair of Vieux Paris Porcelain Vases

Large Pair of Vieux Paris Porcelain Vases, attributed to the Manufacture de Bayeux, Napoleon III, circa 1850

A fine and decorative pair of large porcelain baluster vases of Louis-Philippe / Napoleon III form, the flared leaf shaped rim, lateral foliate handles and shaped oval foot richly modelled in relief and accented with burnished mercury gilding. Each vase is painted on the front with a polychrome oval reserve framed by applied gilt rocaille vine and acanthus leaves, depicting an idealised galant scene in the 18th century taste after Boucher and Lancret, one with a young couple and a ladder beside a cottage, the other with a seated group in a pastoral landscape. The neck and shoulder are decorated with a turquoise ground stylised floral trellis of red and blue blossoms in gilt compartments. The reverse is painted in polychrome enamels with a generous bouquet of garden flowers including roses, lilies, tulips, morning glory, delphinium, campanula and field flowers, finely rendered in the manner of the Paris decorators of the period. The rim, handles and foot with extensive burnished gilt rocaille decoration.

A very similar pair is preserved in the collections of the Palazzo Pitti, Florence.

Provenance: Koller Auktionen, Zurich, lot 1717.

Literature: A. d'Agliano, Ceramiche dell'Ottocento, Novara 1985, p. 61.
France, attributed to the Manufacture de Bayeux, circa 1850.

Dimensions: H. 78 cm, W. 33.5 cm.

Condition: Good overall, with a chip to one of the flared rim extensions, as catalogued at Koller.