拍品專文
The present pair of ice pails (glacière à chimères) are from a small service ordered by Napoleon I but not completed until after his ‘Hundred Days’, when the service was purchased by King Louis XVIII [Vv1, fol. 53]. The sales records indicate that all the pieces of form and 48 plates were bought by the King on 15 October 1815, but he unfortunately had to wait until December of that year for 36 of these plates to be delivered as they were on display at an exhibition of Sèvres' production [Vbb5, fol. 10]. Three smaller purchases of additional plates were made the subsequent year.
The service is noteworthy for the quality of the painting and for the variety of decoration which features views of landscapes and palaces across Europe, often with specific connections to Napoleon, the gilt border decoration varying from piece to piece. The pieces of form included those found in other Napoleonic services such as the Service Marly d’Or - a selection of serving dishes and footed bowls in sizes and the distinctive sucriers Aigle, the footed navette-shaped bowl with ends curving upward into eagle heads, the cover with an eaglet busting out of its shell. Although not unique to the Service des Vues Diverses, the shape of the ice pails is rare and unlike that found with most services. They truly are pails, the silver-gilt handles hinging on pins centering small masks at the rim that swing up for carrying or down to form a rim around the mouth of the pail.
Of the four palaces whose ‘portraits’ appear on the present ice pails, all are still in existence with the exception of the Palais de Saint-Cloud, the palace with the closest connection to Napoleon I and the site of the investiture of Napoleon III. Damaged by fire during the Franco-Prussian War, it was finally razed in 1891.
Jean-François Robert, is recorded as a painter at the factory from 1806-1834 and again 1836-1843. His payment records for work done in 1814 record precisely the scenes on each pail for which he was paid 100 francs - thus there is no doubt that the Spanish palace of Aranjuez was originally meant to be paired with Windsor and not the Russian palace at Sarskocello (Tsarskoye Selo) found on the present pail [Manufacture de Sèvres, Travaux de Peintre et Doreur 1814, p. 15]. One can only speculate that the change must have been requested by Louis XVIII or perhaps made for a political reason.
Juin: Vase à Glace du Service No. 1, Vues Diverses, fond bleu, pour la peinture de deux sujets de paysage, l’un vue de Schönbrunn, l’autre de St Cloud - à comte 100 frs.
Juillet: Vase à Glace du Service No. 1, Vues Diverses, fond bleu, pour la peinture de deux sujets de paysage, l’un vue de Aranjuez et l’autre de Windsor - à comte 100 frs.
For a glacière à chimères of similar form, see C. Leprince, Napoléon 1er & La Manufacture de Sèvres, L'Art de la Porcelaine au service de L'Empire, Paris, 2016, pp. 80-87, 171, and 220.
The service is noteworthy for the quality of the painting and for the variety of decoration which features views of landscapes and palaces across Europe, often with specific connections to Napoleon, the gilt border decoration varying from piece to piece. The pieces of form included those found in other Napoleonic services such as the Service Marly d’Or - a selection of serving dishes and footed bowls in sizes and the distinctive sucriers Aigle, the footed navette-shaped bowl with ends curving upward into eagle heads, the cover with an eaglet busting out of its shell. Although not unique to the Service des Vues Diverses, the shape of the ice pails is rare and unlike that found with most services. They truly are pails, the silver-gilt handles hinging on pins centering small masks at the rim that swing up for carrying or down to form a rim around the mouth of the pail.
Of the four palaces whose ‘portraits’ appear on the present ice pails, all are still in existence with the exception of the Palais de Saint-Cloud, the palace with the closest connection to Napoleon I and the site of the investiture of Napoleon III. Damaged by fire during the Franco-Prussian War, it was finally razed in 1891.
Jean-François Robert, is recorded as a painter at the factory from 1806-1834 and again 1836-1843. His payment records for work done in 1814 record precisely the scenes on each pail for which he was paid 100 francs - thus there is no doubt that the Spanish palace of Aranjuez was originally meant to be paired with Windsor and not the Russian palace at Sarskocello (Tsarskoye Selo) found on the present pail [Manufacture de Sèvres, Travaux de Peintre et Doreur 1814, p. 15]. One can only speculate that the change must have been requested by Louis XVIII or perhaps made for a political reason.
Juin: Vase à Glace du Service No. 1, Vues Diverses, fond bleu, pour la peinture de deux sujets de paysage, l’un vue de Schönbrunn, l’autre de St Cloud - à comte 100 frs.
Juillet: Vase à Glace du Service No. 1, Vues Diverses, fond bleu, pour la peinture de deux sujets de paysage, l’un vue de Aranjuez et l’autre de Windsor - à comte 100 frs.
For a glacière à chimères of similar form, see C. Leprince, Napoléon 1er & La Manufacture de Sèvres, L'Art de la Porcelaine au service de L'Empire, Paris, 2016, pp. 80-87, 171, and 220.