CIRCA 1800-1810

Alluding to imperial, royal and princely taste through millennia, these striking porphyry vases are a powerful statement of connoisseurship and epitomise the latest neoclassical taste that swept Europe in the early 19th century.

With their distinctive amphora shape and square handles, recalling the storage vessels of antiquity, the form of these vases is an evolution of neoclassicism that was developed and executed by Italian designers and scalpellini in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The sharply cut square handles and slender elongated bodies recall two 18th century vases in two of the greatest Italian collections: a vase in the Pitti Palace in Florence with related long square-section handles extending to the top of the neck (illustrated D. Del Bufalo, Porphyry, Turin, 2012, p. 155, fig. 117) and a vase in the Gallery of Maps in the Vatican with similar handles emerging from a sharply cut tapering body on a socle also of related form (ibid, p. 155, fig. 121a). The development of this amphora form in Rome in the late 18th century is demonstrated by designs produced by Giuseppe Valadier, of the remarkable Roman dynasty of craftsmen, in particular for a pair of ormolu-mounted white marble candelabra of similarly slender tapering form with handles that was sold Sotheby’s, Paris, 28 June 2023, lot 322.

The crisp and finely executed carving of these vases points to the technical refinement of stonecutting prevalent in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. As well as in Rome, the cutting and polishing of porphyry objects was particularly well-developed in Paris under the auspices of the duc d’Aumont, who employed a number of highly-skilled cutters at the Menus-Plaisirs du Roi. Later in the 19th century Karl XIV Johann (Jean Bernadotte), the King of Sweden, exploited deposits in the valley of Älvdalen and there set up his own manufactory, which produced high quality porphyry objects in the neoclassical style fashionable in Scandinavia at the time.

These vases were once amongst a number of porphyry vases which adorned the interiors of Luffness House in East Lothian, Scotland, where they had almost certainly been placed by Sir Alexander Hope (1769-1837). Initially constructed as a castle in the 16th century to defend against English incursions, Luffness was acquired by the Hopes of Hopetoun in 1739. It passed to General Sir Alexander Hope (1769-1837), second son of the 2nd Earl of Hopetoun, who expanded and altered the house in 1822 to plans by William Burn, transforming it into an elegant residence in the early Scots baronial style. Alexander Hope was a distinguished military figure who attained in 1808 the rank of major-general and in 1812 was appointed governor of the Royal Military College at Sandhurst.

Hope clearly had a penchant for porphyry objects and the 1825 inventory of Luffness mentions a garniture of three porphyry vases that had been gifted to Hope by Karl XIV Johann, King of Sweden, while further porphyry vases are recorded in the 1837 inventory, and a record dated to 1888 of items removed from the Hopes’ Mayfair townhouse to Luffness boasts six porphyry vases, probably including the present lot and the porphyry tazza in this collection (lot 18) alongside the Swedish garniture. Hope had visited Sweden in 1813 in his military capacity and had exchanged gifts with Karl XIV Johann, formerly Jean Bernadotte. Konrad O. Bernheimer (Kunst und Tradition, Meisterwerke bedeuntender Provenienzen, Munich, 1989, pp. 154-155) has suggested that in addition to the garniture of three Swedish porphyry vases, the present vases and the tazza in this collection also formed part of this royal gift. However, the Italian origin of the vases and, crucially, the use of Egyptian over Swedish porphyry would prove an unlikely choice of state gift for a monarch keen to promote objects from his own royal mines.

It is noteworthy that Hope travelled extensively in Europe and from 1821-1823 undertook a grand tour to Germany, Switzerland and Italy with his wife and five children. It is probable that these vases and the tazza were acquired on this trip.