A pair of gem-set enamelled gold vases, possibly by Alfred...

in the Renaissance style, the square bases with strapwork and arabesques in white, red, blue and green enamel, the ovoid vases set with stones, the handles modelled as tritons holding pearls

11.1cm, 4⅜in. high

Catalogue Note:
These splendid small vases are most likely the work of two of the greatest historicist goldsmiths of the mid-19th century: the Frenchman Alfred André and the German Reinhold Vasters.

These vases have been known since their creation, as the painter Jean-Baptiste Fortuné de Fournier depicted them in a watercolor set against a red background, a work now held in the collections of the Jacques Kugel gallery. This watercolor was part of a set of three depicting objects from the collection of the Château de Ferrières, a property of the Rothschild family. Jean-Baptiste Fortuné was a highly regarded painter during the Second Empire; notably, he produced highly precise watercolors of the Tuileries Palace, offering a view of Emperor Napoleon III's collections.

The design for the vases' bases is part of the Reinhold Vasters drawing collection held at the Victoria & Albert Museum (E.3275-1919). However, Miriam Krautwurst who wrote a thesis on the artist (Reinhold Vasters: ein niederrheinischer Goldschmied des 19. Jahrhunderts in der Tradition alter Meister: Sein Zeichnungskonvolut im Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Trier, March 2003, pp. 532–533), suggests that while Vasters may have restored the vases, their actual creation is attributable to the Parisian goldsmith Alfred André.

Alfred André (1839–1919)

Active as a Parisian goldsmith from 1859, André was both a craftsman and a dealer. He specialized in the restoration of medieval and Renaissance pieces. He worked with lapidaries and gilders and collaborated regularly with Vasters; both men worked for the dealer Frédéric Spitzer. Like Vasters, André did not hesitate to embellish antique pieces or even create new works inspired by historical objects. The rediscovery of his molds and the publication of a book on the subject by the Kugel gallery in 2000 (Joyaux Renaissance, une splendeur retrouvée, Paris, 2000) have led to a better understanding of his work and the identification of molds featuring the same type of scrollwork found on our vases.

Baron Alphonse de Rothschild (1827–1905)

The eldest son of James de Rothschild, founder of the French branch of the German banking dynasty, he followed in his father's footsteps by taking over the bank and the family business. He inherited the Château de Ferrières and upheld the family tradition of connoisseurship and art collecting. He expanded the art collection, assembling a magnificent Kunstkammer, reminiscent of a Renaissance prince—that included elaborate mounted vessels and German zoomorphic pieces. It was most likely during this period that the present vases entered the Rothschild collections, supplied by Spitzer, who commissioned Vasters to create a piece that embodied the aesthetic of the Renaissance.

The pair of vases remained in the family collections until it was sold by Baroness Batsheva at Christie’s London on December 14, 2000, Lot 67.

Provenance:
Baron Alphonse de Rothschild (1827-1905), Paris;

Baron Edouard de Rothschild (1868-1949), Paris;

confiscated from the above following the Nazi occupation of Paris by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg after May 1940 and transferred to the Jeu de Paume (ERR no. R 3607 a and b);

transferred to Schloss Neuschwanstein, Hohenschwangau; repatriated to France October 18, 1945 and restituted to the Rothschild Collection;

Baroness Batsheva de Rothschild (1914-1999), Tel Aviv;

Christie's, London, 14 December 2000, lot 67;

Christie's, New York, 13 April 2016, lot 2 Rothschild inventory nos. E. de R. 293

Literature:
M.Krautwurst, Reinhold Vasters: ein niederrheinischer Goldschmiede des 19. Jahrhunderts in der Tradition alter Meister Sein Zeichnnungskonvolut im Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Trier, mars 2003, p. 532-533.