Name: 19th Century Porcelain Pair of Vases, Sèvres, France Scene after Lesueur
Brand: Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres
Rating: 4.9 (39 reviews)

About the Item

Blue cobalt porcelain and bronze pair of vases. Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres (France), 19th century. With scenes after Lesueur. Both vases have the same shape and same decorative elements in gilded bronze applied to it. A polygonal base with a garland lifts them, and on a porcelain base enameled in cobalt blue, is placed a piece in gilded bronze that allows to turn them on this axis. The two fronts present figurative scenes, just under the two handles, which have been shaped like faces of fauns with their goat horns. The neck presents, in gold and on the porcelain, a decoration based on vegetal scrolls and flowers that also appears in other areas. The neck has a frieze of eggs in relief. Two scenes appear signed ("Lesueur"), and show themes of the mythology of the Antiquity; Those of the other sides are two rural landscapes, with houses next to forests and the borders of a water course, with a great memory of this sort in the school of the North of Europe. In the first, a sample of the rapture of Europe, crossing the water on the bovine, dressed in the style of the eighteenth century, and with a composition very similar to examples such as the work of the same theme by Jean-Baptiste Pierre (France, 1714- 1789). And the other presents, under the god of Cupid Love, the marriage formed by Neptune and Amphitrite, crossing the sea in a cart drawn by fish. Eustache Le Sueur or Lesueur (Paris, 1616 - 1655), a French painter and designer considered to be one of the creators of the classical movement in this country and one of the founders of the French Academy of Painting. He studied in Simon Vouet's studio. It is in his works on which the scenes are based: compare, for example, "The Rapture of Ganymede", today a private collection, or with the painting of the Louvre Museum in Paris of "Clio, Eutherpe and Thalía" (inv. 8057). The two porcelain vases enameled in cobalt blue are part of the most characteristic production of the Nationale de Sèvres (France), which came about when the Manufacture de Vicennes was founded in 1756 by Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour. The factory began to produce hard paste porcelain in 1770, and today continues to create outstanding works. These two examples can be related to some others, similar in form (inspired by models of antiquity, as well as their decorations) and quality: there is a couple at the Walters Art Museum around 1778 (inventory 48,566 and 48,567), or one in The Louvre of 1837 (F1076C). Size: 33 x 28 x 80 cms. (each).

Creator:
Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres (Manufacturer)
Dimensions:
Height: 31.5 in (80 cm)Width: 13 in (33 cm)Depth: 11.03 in (28 cm)
Sold As:
Set of 2
Style:
Neoclassical (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Bronze,Porcelain
Place of Origin:
France
Period:
19th Century
Date of Manufacture:
19th Century
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
Madrid, ES
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU295139455133

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Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres

A maker of exemplary European ceramics for hundreds of years, Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres has produced porcelain of the highest quality since 1740.

The factory enjoyed royal patronage from its earliest days, and its most prominent patrons in the late 1700s — King Louis XV of France and his mistress, Madame de Pompadour — commissioned some of the period’s most elegant and striking pieces (only the truly wealthy could afford porcelain at this time). The company was originally established in Vincennes but was moved at the request of Madame de Pompadour, in 1756, to Sèvres, near Versailles, so that its operations would be closer to her château.

Sèvres became a mighty and much-revered factory working under a special grant from King Louis XV — the company’s owner as of 1759 and whose abundance of orders for special state gifts put financial strain on the company. Madame de Pompadour is said to have commissioned Sèvres to create an entire indoor garden of porcelain botanicals, for example.

While Sèvres gained a sterling reputation for its soft-paste porcelain wares, the company was late in entering into the production of hard-paste porcelain.

Hard-paste porcelain is the most common type of Chinese porcelain, then a widely exported and profitable product that was not made in Europe until the 18th century. The resources at Sèvres were largely relegated to meeting the demands of Louis XV, and secondly, it did not acquire the secret formula for hard-paste porcelain until 1761.

Until it obtained the coveted secrets behind hard-paste porcelain from a chemist named Pierre-Antoine Hannong — and, years later, gained access to the elusive raw materials to make hard-paste porcelain — Sèvres produced soft-paste porcelain for decades that was widely celebrated but is comparatively a far weaker type as opposed to the hard-paste productions of the company’s rival, Meissen, in Saxony, the first to produce true porcelain outside of Asia.

The artisans at Sèvres applied the rarest and most difficult-to-produce colors to their decorative objects and dinner services. One such color, the bright bleu de roi, became the manufacturer’s signature shade and is found on many of their objects. Sèvres also experimented with rarely glazed or unglazed works that bore no decoration at all — bisque porcelain, French for “biscuit,” refers to unadorned white porcelain sculptures made at Sèvres that resemble white marble after being kiln-fired.

Sèvres marks were applied over the glaze or rendered with cuts by a sharp tool — authentic Sèvres porcelain is most commonly marked with two interlaced Ls that are painted in blue and enclose a third letter. Painters and potters were tasked with affixing marks to record their role in the creation of a particular piece, and as a lot of these artisans’ names are recorded in archival factory materials — and there is also much to be learned at the Sèvres museum — it’s likely that you can accurately identify your Sèvres piece.

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