A Sèvres-Style Turquoise-Ground and Gilt Porcelain Vase and Cover

#18223: A Sèvres-Style Turquoise-Ground and Gilt Porcelain Vase and Cover
French, Early 20th Century
Height 33cm, width 14cm, depth 10cm

This tall ovoid vase and cover is enamelled with a coloured ground and decorated in raised gilding. It stands on a separate stepped plinth of square section. The body narrows to a slender waisted foot and is flanked by a pair of angular square-section handles in burnished gold. It is closed by a domed cover with a pointed gilt finial. The plinth is moulded with a spreading base and a projecting cap.
The turquoise ground is reserved on either side of the body with a shaped panel painted in enamels with a bouquet of roses, anemones and forget-me-nots. Loose blooms trail beyond the frame onto the white reserve, and the same treatment is repeated in miniature on the faces of the plinth.
Around the panels the gilding is worked in relief. It includes scrolling foliate frames, palmettes and shell motifs, ribbon and strapwork bands, and fluted panels drawn in fine gold lines, with rows of raised gold beading along every moulding and change of plane. The shoulder and neck carry successive bands of gilt arabesque on white and blue-green grounds, and the cover repeats the scheme with a band of gilt sprigs over the dome.
The model follows vases produced at Sèvres in the later 18th century, in which a strong coloured ground, such as the factory's bleu céleste, was reserved with painted floral panels and framed in tooled gilding. Vases of this kind were revived in quantity around 1900 for a market seeking the Louis XVI manner in a decorative form suited to display on a mantelpiece or console.
$1,125