AN ORMOLU-MOUNTED SEVRES PORCELAIN 'BLEU NOUVEAU' VASE AND A COVER (VASE GREC 'A MEDAILLONS', 1ERE GRANDEUR)

The present vase is from a known group of similar examples variously described in factory inventories as a vase 'à médaillons', 'greques à guirlandes', or, in the 19th century 'grec à festons'. (M.N.S. Archives, carton 17). The description first appears in a factory inventory of 1 January 1764, described as a new model of the previous year. Also new in 1763 was the blue color known as bleu du roi or bleu nouveau, the deep purplish blue of the present example and a color that has become synonymous with the Sèvres factory. Regardless of the term used to describe the shape of the vase or the color blue, what cannot be disputed is the importance of the model in confirming that neo-classic architectural forms and the influence of the Antique were being adapted to French decorative arts as early as 1763/1764.
Only three examples of this vase are still extant, including the present lot. The first is the central vase of a five vase garniture, likely the garniture purchased by the contrôleur général des Finances Henry Léonard Bertin in December 1764. This garniture was sold from the Michelham Collection, Sotheby's, London, 8 November 1966, lot 101, and is now with the Antique Porcelain Company, and was reproduced in S. Eriksen and G. de Bellaigue, Sèvres Porcelain: Vincennes and Sèvres 1740-1800, London, 1987, pl. J and p. 117. The second was most recently sold from the Sir Charles Clore Collection, Christie's, Monaco, 6 December 1985, lot 5, after having previously been sold from the collection of Madame Derek Fitzgerald in 1965, and the collections of Madame Meyer Sassoon in 1895.