Live Auction 7864500 Years: Decorative Arts Europe
A LOUIS XV ORMOLU AND MEISSEN PORCELAIN FOUNTAIN
Lot 183

A LOUIS XV ORMOLU AND MEISSEN PORCELAIN FOUNTAIN

THE ORMOLU CIRCA 1760, THE PORCELAIN CIRCA 1755, THE MEISSEN FOUNTAIN WITH BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARK, THE HÖCHST BASIN WITH RED WHEEL MARK

Closed8 July 2010

Price Realised

GBP 67,250

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A LOUIS XV ORMOLU AND MEISSEN PORCELAIN FOUNTAIN
THE ORMOLU CIRCA 1760, THE PORCELAIN CIRCA 1755, THE MEISSEN FOUNTAIN WITH BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARK, THE HÖCHST BASIN WITH RED WHEEL MARK
The Meissen fountain of lobed pear shape with quatrefoil domed cover with pinecone finial, draped with berried laurel swags and flanked by pierced acanthus scroll handles, enriched in gilding, painted with loose bouquets of deutsche Blumen and scattered sprigs, within gilt dentil rims, the tap cast in the form of two dolphins above a stylised scallop shell flanked by bullrushes and further draped with oak leaf garlands, the Höchst shaped-oval basin similarly painted with loose bouquets and flowersprays within scroll-moulded gilt-edged well and scroll-moulded stepped border, the underside painted with scattered sprigs, flanked by bearded masks joined by laurel swags, on scroll supports cast with husk trails, the porcelain lid with restored breaks
28 in. (71 cm.) high; 16 in. (41 cm.) wide; 11 in. (28 cm.) deep

With Maurice Segoura, Paris.
The Alberto Bruni Tedeschi Collection, Sotheby's, London, 21 March 2007, lot 90.

Specialist note

This magnificent fontaine à roseaux is inspired by the celebrated two-handled fountain and accompanying basin produced by the Vincennes porcelain factory after designs by Jean-Claude Duplessis in 1754. The combination of costly German porcelain with Parisian ormolu identifies this as the conception of one of the leading marchand merciers, most probably Lazare-Duvaux. The Vincennes-Sèvres factory produced only seven or eight such fountain and basin sets and according to Lazare-Duvaux's surviving daybook four of these were supplied to the leading patrons of the day: Madame de Pompadour, the Dauphin, the Dauphine, as well as Louis XV's sister Madame Sophie. A fifth fountain was purchased by Louis XV as a gift for the Austrian Empress Maria-Theresa. While the fountain owned by the Dauphine is believed to be that now in the David Collection, Copenhagen, the one owned by Madame de Pompadour was sold at Christie's, New York, 17 May 2005, lot 74 (US$1,808,000).

See Siegfried Ducret, 18th Century Porcelain, New York, 1976, p. 41 for the Höchst basin complete with ewer where the flower painting is attributed to Johann Zeschinger; see also Kurt Röder, Das Höchster Porzellan, Mainz, 1930, p. 118, table 129, no. 725 for another similar Höchst ewer and basin.