Each rouleau vase with rocaille and floral-cast rim issuing a pair of scrolled arms cast with bulrushes and terminating in a bearded and turbaned male mask, raised on a scrolling foliate and shell-cast circular base, on scrolled feet, with some variation to size and color of vases, one body with traces of original gilt decoration, each with ink inventory number to underside '17564'
23 in. (58.5 cm) high, 13½ in. (34.5 cm.) wide

Acquired in London, 22 October, 1947.

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Lot Essay

The distinctive exaggerated ormolu handles incorporating bulrushes and bases cast with bold scrolls in the spirit of the rocaille symmetrisé relate these elegant vases to the work of Jean-Claude Chambellan Duplessis (1699-1774). The handles of this lot are comparable to those found on a pair of vases sold from the Champalimaud Collection, Christie’s, London, 6-7 July 2005, lot 66, and, more specifically with the bulrush motif, to a pair in the Wrightsman Collection, Metropolitan Museum, New York (acc. n. 1984.471.3 & 1984.471.4). Ormolu bases similar to those of this lot are widely recurring features in Duplessis’ oeuvre and can be found on many works attributed to him, such as the abovementioned Champalimaud vases, an ormolu-mounted porcelain bowl and an amethyst pot-pourri in the Riahi Collection, sold Christie’s, London, 6 December 2012, lots 19 and 28, respectively, as well as a single vase sold Christie’s, London, 23 May 2018, lot 207, among others.
Duplessis is recorded as a sculptor, ceramic modeler, goldsmith, and bronzier working in the rococo manner, and owed his position and success to a number of influential patrons, including the well-connected Victor-Amédée de Savoie, Prince de Carignan, as well as Marc-René de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson. While Duplessis held no official title and never received his maîtrise, he was widely recognized as such due to the protection and accessibility to royal circles that patronage provided. By 1758 he was listed as Orfèvre du Roi, and was the artistic director of the Vincennes and Sèvres porcelain factories. In his early career as a bronzier, Duplessis worked through the intermediary of marchands-merciers who specialized in ormolu-mounted objects employing the services of a bronzier as required. A number of entries in the Livre-journal of the marchand-mercier, Lazare Duvaux show that Duplessis was regularly engaged to provide mounts for Chinese porcelain referred to as celadon in the day books for the Marquis de Voyer, Monsieur Gaignat and Madame de Pompadour, see L. Courajod, Livre-Journal de Lazare Duvaux, Marchand-Bijoutier Ordinaire du Roy, 1748-1758, Paris, 1873, vol. II, nos. 601, 1713 and 1810. After several years, his reputation had spread and aristocratic clients such as Augustin Blondel de Gagny and the duc de Chaulnes approached him directly. As an independent bronzier, Duplessis would not only have supplied the mounts but also the porcelain. To replenish his stock of Chinese porcelain he frequented the Parisian salerooms, acquiring in 1767 from la collection Jullienne pots pourris de porcelain d'ancien japon and un grand vase de porcelain de Chine, the total bill coming to 3800 livres.