THE ORMOLU CIRCA 1730, THE PORCELAIN SECOND HALF 17TH CENTURY

This jewel-like objet d'art reflects the taste for the mounting of exotic oriental porcelains with finely crafted Parisian gilt bronzes promoted by the marchands-merciers of Paris such as Thomas-Joachim-Hébert and Lazare Duvaux. The marchands-merciers held a monopoly on the import of precious goods from the East such as lacquers and porcelains, but were forbidden by the guild system from actually creating any finished product. They therefore presided over an extraordinary array of specialized artisans who produced their innovative goods which were always at the forefront of fashion, ranging from the first pieces of furniture to be mounted with lacquer panels in the 1730s, to the exquisite porcelain-mounted pieces created in the 1770s and 1780s. During the reign of Louis XV, Lazare Duvaux in particular promoted the fashion for mounting Chinese and Japanese porcelain with gilt bronzes, and was one of the principal suppliers of mounted porcelains to Madame de Pompadour. This potpourri was created by cutting down a Japanese porcelain vessel, such as pair of basically identically-decorated late seventeenth-century double gourd ewers fitted with contemporaneous Dutch silver-gilt mounts that are now preserved at Burghley House (inv. no. CER0307).