This pair is part of a group of thirteen vases which were made in 1778-1779 of either soft or hard paste. They are believed to have been a gift from Louis XVI to his sister-in-law the comtesse d’Artois. Both are decorated with Chinoiserie sea battles and on each vase a ship is depicted bearing a shield with the French Royal arms.
They appear in Bonhams New Bond Street sale of Fine European Ceramics on June 14th:
A pair of Sèvres hard-paste vases, circa 1778
© Bonhams
217
A PAIR OF SÈVRES HARD-PASTE VASES, CIRCA 1778
Vases bouc du Barry, painted by Jean-Jacques Dieu with polychrome chinoiserie sea battles and flying insects, outlined in gilding, applied with gilt goat’s head handles, draped and tied goatskins below the scene and gilt flower garlands suspended from the necks, gilt collars around the necks and gilt borders to the moulded rims, 30cm high, crowned interlaced LL marks in red enclosing date letter AA (one smudged), painter’s mark for Dieu and gilder’s mark for Jean Chauvaux (le jeune) (one with a goat’s head horn replaced and two chips to foot) (2)
£70,000-90,000
Provenance:
William Stephen Poyntz (1770-1840), thence to his daughter;
Georgiana Elizabeth, Countess Spencer (nee Poyntz);
The Earls Spencer, Althorp, Northamptonshire;
London art market, from 1986 (according to Sassoon, see below Literature)
Literature:
R.J. Charleston, Sèvres and Other French Porcelain in Earl Spencer’s Collection at Althorp, in The Connoisseur 173 (February, 1970), pp. 77-86, fig. 11;
R. Savill, A Pair of Sèvres Vases: From the Collection of Sir Richard Wallace to the J. Paul Getty Museum, in The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal. vol. 14 (1986), p. 138;
S. Eriksen & G. de Bellaigue, Sèvres Porcelain – Vincennes and Sèvres 1740-1800 (1987), p. 331f, no. 142;
R. Savill, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain (1988), II, p. 625;
A. Sassoon, Vincennes and Sèvres Porcelain: Catalogue of the Collections, The J. Paul Getty Museum (1992), no. 23, n. 19
Tim Forrest's E & A 