Sèvres-Style Gilt and Hand-Painted Porcelain Casket

18220: Sèvres-Style Gilt and Hand-Painted Porcelain Casket
French, late 19th Century
Height 10cm, Width 24cm, Depth 13cm

This fine late 19th-century French porcelain casket is executed in the Sèvres style and Louis XV taste, the oval body modelled with a sinuous outline and gently undulating sides drawn from the Rococo forms widely revived by French porcelain manufacturers during the final decades of the 19th century. The exterior is mounted with ormolu fittings including a hinged clasp and shaped rim mount and raised on four gilt scroll feet.
The decoration alternates between deep cobalt blue ground panels and ivory-white reserves enriched with elaborate raised gilded scrollwork, foliate trails and rocaille cartouches. The lid is centred by a large oval painted panel depicting a fête galante scene in the manner of Watteau, with a shepherd and shepherdess in an idyllic landscape, a lamb resting at her feet. The composition is enclosed within an elaborate raised gilt rocaille cartouche that harmonises beautifully with the surrounding decoration.
The combination of rich cobalt blue, exuberant raised gilding and finely painted figural reserves creates a sumptuous interplay of colour and texture entirely characteristic of the finest Sèvres-style production of the period. The interior is finished in white glazed porcelain, with delicate floral sprays painted to both the underside of the lid and the base.
The painted panel is signed ‘Callot’. The underside bears a blue underglaze workshop cypher incorporating the letter ‘S’, together with a circular red stamp inscribed ‘Château des Tuileries’, confirming the distinguished provenance of this elegant and finely crafted piece.
$ 5,250