The models after designs by Pierre-Elisabeth de Fontanieu, each drum-shaped vase finely painted with a putto in a landscape holding military attributes, each reverse painted with a bouquet, within oval reserves on a gilt oeil-de-perdrix ground, flanked by angular bracket handles suspending rings and with scrolling foliate terminals, the covers domed, gadrooned and with ovoid knops, the necks and lower bodies applied with floral swags and 'pearl' bands, on round gilt bases
15¹⁄₂ in. (39.4 cm.) high

La Collection de M. le marquis d’Osmond; Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 9 February 1884, lot 3 (65,000 francs).
Baron Édouard de Rothschild, collection no. 377B.
Confiscated from the above by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg following the Nazi occupation in Paris after May 1940 (ERR no. R4406a,b).
Recovered by the Monuments Fine Arts and Archives Section from the Altaussee salt mines, Austria, and transferred to the Munich Central Collecting Point, 26 June 1945 (MCCP no. 989).
Returned to France on 2 March 1946 and restituted to the Rothschild family.

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Lot Essay

The present vases reflect the adoption of the Neoclassical style by the Sèvres manufactory. Their design originated in 1770 with Pierre-Elisabeth de Fontanieu (c. 1730-1784), who served as intendant et contrôleur général des meubles de la Couronne [Administator-General of the Royal Wardrobe] from 1767 to 1783. From this administrative post, Fontanieu oversaw the furnishing of royal palaces through the transition in aristocratic taste from the Rococo style to the Neoclassical. Fontanieu built close working relationships with leaders of the decorative trades, including Jean-Henri Riesener and Quentin-Claude Pitoin, each of whom provided Fontanieu himself with Neoclassical-taste objets for his own official apartments.

As well as being an influential administrator, Fontanieu possessed a strong practical bent. He was an elected member not only of the Académie d'Architecture, but also of the Académie des Sciences, writing texts on the fabrication of simulated gems and enamel colors, and operating a laboratory of his own, which he eventually sold to King Louis XVI in 1780 for the sum of 50,000 livres. Perhaps the large collection of lathes among his laboratory equipment provided inspiration as he prepared his 1770 monograph, the Collection de vases inventés et dessinés par M. de Fontanieu, a folio-volume of engraved designs for 33 vases, urns and pedestal-clocks in Neoclassical style, in which the design for the present form appears. On the title page of his book, Fontanieu provides a dedication to the craft of lathe-turning, writing "Cette Collection à été faite, pour Servir aux Tourneurs et à Ceux qui Ornent les Vases, Comme Fondeurs et Ciseleurs, &c." ["This collection was made to serve turners and those who decorate vases, such as metal-founders and chasers, etc."]. Inside the book, each design appears in two stages: first as an unornamented profile, as if to represent an object freshly removed from a lathe, and second with a scheme of decoration to its body, representing the same object now finished through techniques of chasing, painting and applying handles and garlands of the types appearing on the present lot.

Whether or not Fontanieu intended for his designs to be realized in porcelain, the Sèvres manufactory is known to have executed at least five of Fontanieu's vase designs, producing the earliest in 1772 and continuing to manufacture a sixth design, a case for a chimney-clock, as late as the Empire period. Of the five vase designs produced, three, each of different form, were given the name vase Fontanieu. However, in the Sèvres records no descriptive distinction is made to distinguish between the various vases Fontanieu forms. It seems likely that they were differentiated at the factory by reference to their three sizes: the present vase Fontanieu design, of cylindrical form and with angular handles, being designated 'of the first size'; the vase Fontanieu with a conical profile and with cartels (?) probably being designated 'of the second size'; and lastly the vase Fontanieu of oviform body and with prominent garlands to its sides being described as 'of the third size'.

The present pair of vases, with their cylindrical bodies, are therefore to be considered 'of the first size'. The figure painting is attributed to Jean-Baptiste-Étienne Genest who was active at Sèvres from 1752 to 1789. The interlaced L's at the undersides do not resemble the distinctive L's typical of Genest, suggesting that they were probably added by the unknown painter of the flowers.

Nine vases Fontanieu were sold by Sèvres in December 1772, of which five sales were to members of the royal family: three, of the second and third sizes, with a beau bleu background and decoration en grisaille were bought by the Dauphine, Marie-Antoinette, for 936 livres; the daughters of Louis XV, Mesdames Adélaïde, Victoire and Sophie, together bought a pair of cylindrical vases Fontanieu of the first size at 1,200 livres. On 1 August 1775, two more vases were purchased by Baron de Buchevale. Louis XVI's three aunts, on 3 July 1776, added to their 1772 purchase with another two vases Fontanieu (arch. Sèvres, Cité de la Céramique, Vy5 f° 42-43 and Vy6, f° 88v). A pair, with cylindrical body and of the same height as the present lot are held at Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, Kassel (inv. nos. 4.1.2889-90).

For a discussion of Fontanieu and an illustration of one of the Schloss Wilhelmshöhe vases, see S. Eriksen, Early Neoclassicism in France, London, 1974, pp. 374, 229-52, pl. 288. See also Geoffrey de Bellaigue, French Porcelain in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, Vol. I, pp. 375-379, Cat. no. 86, for further discussion of the various vase Fontanieu forms.

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The condition of lots can vary widely and the nature of the lots sold means that they are unlikely to be in a perfect condition. Lots are sold in the condition they are in at the time of sale.

Present well; a few minor intrinsic flaws, in the making, including some dark kiln specks at the interiors; some light scratches and wear throughout, consistent with age and handling, including the typical tiny chips to the edges of flower petals at the garlands, and tiny losses to the gilt around the feet.

The vase painted with a putto, shield and flag: in generally good condition; a very small area of touch-up to a tiny glaze flake above the putto's head; two minute flakes to the gilding at the raised band beneath the scene with the putto; a short, lightly stained firing line to the underside of the white knop at the stem, not visible except from below; a few minute chips to the upper edge of the socle, where it meets the lower body.

The vase painted with a putto, sword and helmet: presents well; the body with two old vertical hairline cracks to the side with the floral reserve, one crack through the left side of the reserve and the other to the blue ground at the left of the reserve, both hairlines only visible from the interior and where they cross the narrow band of white ground at the lower edge of the body; the upper portion of the handle to the left of the figural scene with repaired hairline cracks, indicating that it may have been previously off and restuck, an area of restoration (approx. 1 inch long) to the gilt edge at its outward-facing side; the other handle with similarly-situated short lines, seemingly inherent to the vase's manufacture, and a short hairline to its uppermost scroll, the side facing the neck.

Each vase with a reattached finial to its cover, one of the covers restored around approx. 1/3 of its lower edge, the other cover with two restored chips (each approx. ¹⁄₄ in. long) to its lower edge.

Print Report