.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The recipient was most probably Marie-Auguste-Louis IV des Balbes de Berton (1717-1796), 2nd Duc de Crillon, 1st Duc de Mahon, Grand d'Espagne de première classe (created 1782) and Sovereign of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Tamara Préaud and Antoine d'Albis record the sale to the Duc de Crillon: pot à oglio forme ordinaire décoré d'oiseaux vendu pour 900 livres à M. de Crillon le 25 janvier 1753, see ibid., 1991, p. 96. Marie-Auguste-Louis IV was the eldest son of Francois-Félix-Dorothée (1st duc de Crillon in 1725) and Marie-Christine de Montcault and had three sons by two marriages. His son Francois-Felix Dorothée became the owner of the l'Hôtel de Crillon on the Place de la Concorde. Marie-Auguste-Louis IV is considered by the historian Max Prinet (1867-1937) to be the most celebrated General of the eight that the Crillon family produced, each following in the footsteps of their forbear Crillon the Brave. Marie-Auguste-Louis IV distinguished himself in battle during the Polish and Austrian Wars of Succession (1733-38 and 1740-48 respectively) and the Seven Years' War (1756-63). In order to progress through the military ranks he left France in 1762 and travelled to Spain to take part in the fourth Anglo-Spanish War during which he recaptured Mahon and Minorca from the English and was granted the title Duc de Mahon by Charles III of Spain. He later suffered defeat by the British in 1782 at the Great Siege of Gibraltar during the American War of Independence.
The celebrated collector Comtesse Martine de Béhague (1869-1939) amassed an impressive array of works of art during her extensive worldwide travels by yacht. The Comtesse resided at Hôtel de Béhague at 123 Rue Saint-Dominique, Paris and the building itself reflected her diverse collections having been built in a combination of Byzantine, classical and other styles. The Comtesse held court at her Paris residence and important writers, artists, poets and sculptors of the day would visit. Her eclectic array of artworks were displayed in Paris and also at the Château de Fleury-en-Bière in Seine-et-Marne (which she rennovated). They were also displayed at her villa on the French Riviera La Polynésie. Much of her collection was dispersed during the early and mid-20th century with many pieces entering important museum collections in France and America.
The form of this tureen was modelled by Jean-Claude Chambellan Duplessis père, a goldsmith and bronzier by training who designed a number of models of vases and serving-dishes for Vincennes and Sèvres including the 'Vase Duplessis à fleurs' and the 'Saucière-lampe Duplessis'. The exact name given to this shape is unclear although the factory mould was labelled 'pot à oglio Saxe' in the 19th century. The model was in production by the 1750s, although references to 'pot à oglio Saxe' only appear in Sèvres factory records in the 1770s. A type of 'pot à oille' is recorded in fournée no. 37 in 1750 and it appears that the present form was the only version made during this early period of production. It is not until a factory inventory of 1752 that examples of this form are precisely named. The later examples of this type were called 'pot à oglio forme ancienne' and 'pot à oglio forme ordinaire' in factory records in 1755 and 1753 respectively, and they are the most probable names to be subsequently used at Vincennes and Sèvres.
It was only in 1993 that Armand l'Aîné's painter's mark was identified by Bernard Dragesco. Armand used a crescent which was sometimes drawn with the addition of elaborate interlaced L's and it sometimes enclosed dots. Dragesco made this discovery after a painstaking study of payments made to workers recorded in the archives at Sèvres, and also by the analysis of ornithological drawings by Armand which had recently come to light. The mark had previously been erroneously attributed to Jean-Pierre Le Doux (active 1752-62). Armand l'Aîné worked at Vincennes and then at Sèvres from 1745 until 1788 and was a painter of birds, animals, landscapes and figures. Antoine d'Albis and Tamara Préaud identified that Armand had worked in Paris as a painter of lacquer 'dans le goût chinois' before starting work at Vincennes in 1745.1 The exotic and fantastic birds depicted on the present tureen conform to fashions of the early 1750s and were probably inspired by Oriental lacquered furniture and boiseries of the period.2
The present tureen, cover and stand typifies Armand l'Aîné's early painting style with a delicate palette and precise vignettes. Very few pieces of Vincennes porcelain with such fine painting by Armand l'Aîné on this large scale are known to exist. A closely related oval tureen, cover and ormolu-mounted stand (terrine 'Ancienne' son couvercle and son présentoir) decorated with similarly placed vignettes of birds and dated 1751 is in Sèvres, Cité de la Céramique (MNC21570 and MNC21579). Tamara Préaud and Antoine d'Albis illustrate a tureen, cover and stand of circa 1751-52 of the same oval 'Ancienne' form decorated with flower-sprays, see ibid., 1991, pp. 33, 96-97, cat. no. 22. A lobed circular broth basin, cover and oval stand (écuelle à 4 pans ronds à cachet or écuelle à 4 pans ronds de M. Hébert or écuelle à 4 pans ovales) of circa 1750-52, also modelled by Duplessis and painted with similar vignettes of birds is in the David Collection, Copenhagen, see Svend Eriksen, The David Collection, French Porcelain, Copenhagen, 1980, p. 61, no. 25. Another decorated with vignettes of fish and birds from Powderham Castle and Seaton Delaval Hall was sold at Sotheby's, London on 29 September 2009, lot 146. A broth basin, cover and stand of the same form but moulded with fruiting vine and decorated with bird vignettes of circa 1752 from Houghton Hall, Norfolk was sold in these Rooms on 8 December 1994, lot 43. Another, of circa 1748, without the moulding and decorated with the Stuart Royal arms with similar vignettes of birds by Armand l'Aîné is in the Collection of her Majesty the Queen. See Geoffrey de Bellaigue, French Porcelain in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, London, 2009, Vol. III, pp. 933-936, cat. no. 262 where the author discusses the attribution to Armand l'Aîné and lists other similar known écuelles.
1. See 'Les Eléments de datation des Porcelaines de Vincennes avant 1753', The French Porcelain Society, Vol. II, 1986, p. 1-7.
2. See Linda H. Roth and Clare Le Corbeiller, French Eighteenth-Century Porcelain at the Wadsworth Atheneum, the J. Pierpont Morgan Collection, Wadsworth, 2000, p. 294.
The celebrated collector Comtesse Martine de Béhague (1869-1939) amassed an impressive array of works of art during her extensive worldwide travels by yacht. The Comtesse resided at Hôtel de Béhague at 123 Rue Saint-Dominique, Paris and the building itself reflected her diverse collections having been built in a combination of Byzantine, classical and other styles. The Comtesse held court at her Paris residence and important writers, artists, poets and sculptors of the day would visit. Her eclectic array of artworks were displayed in Paris and also at the Château de Fleury-en-Bière in Seine-et-Marne (which she rennovated). They were also displayed at her villa on the French Riviera La Polynésie. Much of her collection was dispersed during the early and mid-20th century with many pieces entering important museum collections in France and America.
The form of this tureen was modelled by Jean-Claude Chambellan Duplessis père, a goldsmith and bronzier by training who designed a number of models of vases and serving-dishes for Vincennes and Sèvres including the 'Vase Duplessis à fleurs' and the 'Saucière-lampe Duplessis'. The exact name given to this shape is unclear although the factory mould was labelled 'pot à oglio Saxe' in the 19th century. The model was in production by the 1750s, although references to 'pot à oglio Saxe' only appear in Sèvres factory records in the 1770s. A type of 'pot à oille' is recorded in fournée no. 37 in 1750 and it appears that the present form was the only version made during this early period of production. It is not until a factory inventory of 1752 that examples of this form are precisely named. The later examples of this type were called 'pot à oglio forme ancienne' and 'pot à oglio forme ordinaire' in factory records in 1755 and 1753 respectively, and they are the most probable names to be subsequently used at Vincennes and Sèvres.
It was only in 1993 that Armand l'Aîné's painter's mark was identified by Bernard Dragesco. Armand used a crescent which was sometimes drawn with the addition of elaborate interlaced L's and it sometimes enclosed dots. Dragesco made this discovery after a painstaking study of payments made to workers recorded in the archives at Sèvres, and also by the analysis of ornithological drawings by Armand which had recently come to light. The mark had previously been erroneously attributed to Jean-Pierre Le Doux (active 1752-62). Armand l'Aîné worked at Vincennes and then at Sèvres from 1745 until 1788 and was a painter of birds, animals, landscapes and figures. Antoine d'Albis and Tamara Préaud identified that Armand had worked in Paris as a painter of lacquer 'dans le goût chinois' before starting work at Vincennes in 1745.
The present tureen, cover and stand typifies Armand l'Aîné's early painting style with a delicate palette and precise vignettes. Very few pieces of Vincennes porcelain with such fine painting by Armand l'Aîné on this large scale are known to exist. A closely related oval tureen, cover and ormolu-mounted stand (terrine 'Ancienne' son couvercle and son présentoir) decorated with similarly placed vignettes of birds and dated 1751 is in Sèvres, Cité de la Céramique (MNC21570 and MNC21579). Tamara Préaud and Antoine d'Albis illustrate a tureen, cover and stand of circa 1751-52 of the same oval 'Ancienne' form decorated with flower-sprays, see ibid., 1991, pp. 33, 96-97, cat. no. 22. A lobed circular broth basin, cover and oval stand (écuelle à 4 pans ronds à cachet or écuelle à 4 pans ronds de M. Hébert or écuelle à 4 pans ovales) of circa 1750-52, also modelled by Duplessis and painted with similar vignettes of birds is in the David Collection, Copenhagen, see Svend Eriksen, The David Collection, French Porcelain, Copenhagen, 1980, p. 61, no. 25. Another decorated with vignettes of fish and birds from Powderham Castle and Seaton Delaval Hall was sold at Sotheby's, London on 29 September 2009, lot 146. A broth basin, cover and stand of the same form but moulded with fruiting vine and decorated with bird vignettes of circa 1752 from Houghton Hall, Norfolk was sold in these Rooms on 8 December 1994, lot 43. Another, of circa 1748, without the moulding and decorated with the Stuart Royal arms with similar vignettes of birds by Armand l'Aîné is in the Collection of her Majesty the Queen. See Geoffrey de Bellaigue, French Porcelain in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, London, 2009, Vol. III, pp. 933-936, cat. no. 262 where the author discusses the attribution to Armand l'Aîné and lists other similar known écuelles.
1. See 'Les Eléments de datation des Porcelaines de Vincennes avant 1753', The French Porcelain Society, Vol. II, 1986, p. 1-7.
2. See Linda H. Roth and Clare Le Corbeiller, French Eighteenth-Century Porcelain at the Wadsworth Atheneum, the J. Pierpont Morgan Collection, Wadsworth, 2000, p. 294.