A pair of Russian Neoclassical vases - image-1
A pair of Russian Neoclassical vases - image-2
A pair of Russian Neoclassical vases - image-3
A pair of Russian Neoclassical vases - image-1A pair of Russian Neoclassical vases - image-2A pair of Russian Neoclassical vases - image-3

Lot 248 Dα

A pair of Russian Neoclassical vases

Auction 1150 - overview Berlin
16.05.2020, 12:00 - The Prussian Sale
Estimate: 10.000 € - 15.000 €
Result: 12.500 € (incl. premium)

A pair of Russian Neoclassical vases

Porcelain, plaster, gilding, and malachite veneer. A "vase fuseau" model after a design by Sèvres. Fired in four parts and screw-mounted, with two griffon models on pilasters to either side. Decorated to both sides with finely etched depictions of a Roman battle and a classical sacrifice scene with a faun on brackets above faun mascarons and drapery. Restored. H ca. 48 cm.
Attributed to Imperial Manufactory St. Petersburg, after 1808.

The archive of the Manufacture de Sèvres records the design and completion of the first "vase fuseau" by Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart (1739 - 1813) between 1803 and 1806. The model was highly popular throughout the Napoleonic era and beyond and was produced in various sizes and with a large variety of different handles and applied decor. These examples are particularly interesting, not just owing to the fact that they are of Russian manufacture, but also because the sphinx appliques are made from gilt plaster as a replacement material. Wasilissa Pachomova-Göres has suggested that the sphinx motif was inspired by the Egyptian service which Tsar Alexander received from Napoleon in 1808.

Provenance

Private collection, Rhineland.

Literature

An identical vase with sphinx-form handles made in 1808 from the IPM Petersburg collection (inv. no. GKXII2696) illus. in: Pachomova-Göres, Aus Petersburg nach Berlin mit Sondermission. Die russisch-Preußische "Porzellanchronik": das Petersburger Kapitel, in: Vinogradov Readings St. Petersburg 2013, illus. 8.