A pair of Parisian porcelain Medici vases with copies of paintings in grisaille - image-1
A pair of Parisian porcelain Medici vases with copies of paintings in grisaille - image-2
A pair of Parisian porcelain Medici vases with copies of paintings in grisaille - image-1A pair of Parisian porcelain Medici vases with copies of paintings in grisaille - image-2

Lot 185 Dα

A pair of Parisian porcelain Medici vases with copies of paintings in grisaille

Auction 1182 - overview Cologne
15.07.2021, 11:00 - The Exceptional Bernard De Leye Collection
Estimate: 5.000 € - 6.000 €

A pair of Parisian porcelain Medici vases with copies of paintings in grisaille

Fired in two parts and screw mounted. With two acanthus scroll handles on either side. Decorated with finely painted reproductions of 18th century paintings in angular reserves framed by delicate gold etched arabesques, scrolls, cornucopia, acanthus and a vine leaf border. Unmarked. H 34.5 and 35.5 cm.
Paris, circa 1780 – 85.

The paintings upon which the faithful replicas on the first vase were based are François Boucher's (1703 - 1770) “The Bather Surprised” (1736), which today hangs in the Arkhangelskoye Estate Museum in Moscow, and Jean-Honoré Fragonard's (1732 – 1806) “The See-Saw” (circa 1750/52) in the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid (inv. no. 148 1956.13). The second vase is based on works by Angelika Kauffmann (1741 – 1807) and depicts Neoclassical allegories.

Provenance

Collection of HRH Princess Lilian of Belgium.

Literature

Cf. a "Vases Médicis" painted similarly in grisaille attributed to the Manufakture de Monsieur in the Musée du Vieux Monmartre Paris (in Plinval de Guillebon, Faience et Porcelaine de Paris XVIIIe - XIXe siècles, Dijon 1995, illus. 103, p. 132).