Painted with a portrait medallion of Marie Clotilde of France, the reverse with a bouquet of flowers within a further medallion, the socle gilt with foliate scrolls
7 in. (19.7 cm.) high

Probably purchased by King Louis XVI of France in 1775 from the Sèvres manufactory for 480 livres. (Not listed in his rooms at Versailles in the revolutionary inventories, so probably taken by Louis XVI to the Tuilleries with other personally-elected items when he was moved away from Versailles).
With Adrian Sassoon, London, from whom it was acquired in 2015.
Hôtel Lambert, Une Collection Princière, Sotheby's Paris, 11 October 2022, lot 35.

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Lot Essay

The portrait medallion on present lot shows Madame Clotilde (1759-1802) the younger sister of Louis XVI, who married Charles-Emmanuel of Savoy in 1775, who was Prince of Piedmont and became King of Sardinia in 1796. The Sèvres factory archives record that on 7 August 1774, the flower painter Parpette was paid 48 livres for painting ‘fleurs et fruit’ on a vase à oreilles with ‘portrait de Princesse de Piedmont’. In 1775 a single vase of unspecified shape with ‘portrait de Mme Clotilde’ was purchased by Louis XVI for 480 livres, which probably is the present vase.

The vase à oreilles was designed by Jean-Claude Duplessis at the Vincennes manufactory in 1754 and was still being produced in biscuit in the 1780s. Pierre-Nicolas Pithou l'aîné worked at Sèvres from 1759 to 1790 and was a painter of figures and probably flowers. François-Henry Vincent is recorded as a gilder at the factory from 1753-1800.