A PAIR OF LOUIS XVI ORMOLU-MOUNTED BLUE-JOHN TWO-HANDLED URNS AND COVERS

This pair of sumptuous ormolu-mounted urns of richly veined blue-john reflect the taste for precious hardstones among enlightened collectors in the 1780s such as the duc d'Aumont and Marie Antoinette. Blue-john, a rare fluorspar deposit from the Castleton area of Derbyshire, England, has been prized since Roman times. Comprised of a mix of deep purple hues with lighter translucent layers ranging from honey yellow to light brown, the name is a corruption of their appellation 'bleu et jaune' in French. Although ormolu-mounted blue-john objects of this era are almost synonymous with the work of Matthew Boulton, (d. 1802) such as lot 59. However a pair of Louis XVI vases and a ewer in the Wallace Collection (P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Furniture, London, 1996, Vol. III pp.1390-3, F345-7) indicate that the Parisian marchands-merciers also exploited this uniquely English material. It is still undocumented if the marchands-merciers obtained finished blue-john pieces directly from Castleton or if they were supplied by Boulton, who had an essential monopoly on the material in England as well as a flourishing trade in France.