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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