PAIR OF VASES WITH GILT BRONZE MOUNTS 'FUSEAU À ANSES DAUPHIN'

Sèvres, ca. 1820.

Printed LL monogram mark with 'fleur de Lys', 'Sevres' and 1820. Signed Huard below the edge of the foot.

H 39.4 cm. The body of one vase repaired and with chip on the base. (2)

This pair of vases was put up for sale in the Sales Room of the Manufactory on 8 April 1821 (Vv1, 159vo-32). The paint work is described as 'fond bleu pâle ornements violets et camées'. Another pair of the same size, decorated all over with a trellis of ruby cagbochons of the same type as those on our vases, was sold at Christie's New York, 26 October 1995, Lot 91.The vase fuseau is one of the moste elegant shapes produced at Sèvres in the early nineteenth century. It was designed in 1800, the year that Alexandre Brongniart arrived as director of the Sèvres factory, by his own father the architect Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart. Brogniart père was asked by his son to provede a number of designs at this period and advice him in artistic matters. Most examples have tall gilt bronze handles. In this case these have dolphin heads at the base, which is unusual.Pierre Huard (1783-1857) worked as a painter at Sèvres from 1811 to 1846. Brongniart’s testimonial to him upon his retirement as first painter is eloquent praise of his talent: 'M. Pierre Huard est le premier peintre ornemaniste de la Manufacture et sa retraite est und perte pour pour cet établissement Royal ; non seulement il a exécuté avec une perfection que tout le monde a admiré les ornetments sur vases, tables, coffrets dont on lui a donné les dessins, mais il a enrichi des pièces analogues et de grandes dimensions tels que guéridons, coffrets etc d’ornements appropriés et riches de couleurs de sa composition.' (Alan Darr, A 19th century royal Sèvres déjeuner chinois réticulé, The French Porcelain Society Journal, Volume IV 2011, p. 127). It is uncommon for painters to sign with their full name. This is the case for the déjeuner chinois réticulé in the Detroit Institute of Art.A drawing of 1816 by Huard for a cup with cabochon decoration is preserved in the factory archives (The Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory, Alexandre Brongniart and the Triumph of Art and Industry, 188-1847, exh.cat. The Bard Graduate Center, New York, 1997-1998,p. 219).