Page 121 - Mounted Oriental Porcelain, The Getty Museum

Collection, Paris. 1 Two related pairs with dark blue
porcelain and similar gilt-bronze mounts were exhibited
in 1970 and sold at public auction in 19 8 6. 2 The
mounts of all of these vases are in the style of the
Parisian bronze chaser and gilder Pierre Gouthiere.
The casting and chasing of the mounts on the Getty
Museum's vase are of very high quality. The matte gilding
of the mounts is a typical finish given Parisian bronzes
during the 17805. Its soft appearance is contrasted with
the reflective surfaces of neighboring burnished areas.
Pierre Gouthiere produced some of the finest gilt
bronze of the period for members of the royal family and
the nobility, such as Marie-Antoinette, Louis-Marie-
Augustin due d'Aumont (1709-1782), and his daugh-
ter the duchesse de Mazarin (1736-1781). For the
due d'Aumont he mounted a pair of bluish-purple ewers 3
(fig. 22E); they were acquired in 1782 by Louis xvi at
the sale after the death of the duke. The base rims on the
ewers are identical to those on the Museum's vase, ex-
cept that all four lion's paws on the ewers are joined to
the foot mount with acanthus leaf. The scrolling acan-
thus leaf mount above the feet takes the same form, but
the flanking vines have been replaced by partial anthe-
mia. Contemporary descriptions mention that baby sa-
tyrs sat above the handles of the ewers. They are now
missing but were probably of the same model as those
found on the Museum's vase. The mounts on the Muse-
um's vase are attributed to Gouthiere on the basis of this
comparison and were perhaps designed by Frangois-
Joseph Belanger (1744-1818), architect and designer to
the due d'Aumont. Gouthiere and Belanger collaborated
for many years following their appointments by the
duke to the Menus Plaisirs in 1767. The Museum's vase
does not appear in the sale of the due d'Aumont in
4
1782 or in the inventory of Marie-Antoinette's bronze-
FlG. 2,2-B
mounted porcelains that were confiscated in 1793 dur-
ing the Revolution. 5
NOTES
PUBLICATIONS 1. Hotel Drouot, Paris, March 9, 1954, no. 52, and Hotel
"Acquisitions/i987," GettyMusJ 16 (1988), pp. Drouot, Paris, November 18-19, 1981, no. 112. These
pairs of vases do not have a grapevine mount with leaves
178-79, no. 74; Bremer-David et al. 1993, p. 157? and fruit below the lip mount.
no. 265. 2. The first pair was exhibited at the fifth biennale in Paris
in 1970, by the Parisian dealer Jacques Perrin. The sec-
ond pair was sold at Sotheby's, Monaco, June 16, 1986,
PROVENANCE no. 425.
Acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum from 3. Christie's, London, June 9, 1994, lot 35. These ewers
Michel Meyer, Paris, in 1987. are of the same form as the ewers discussed in catalogue
no. 2.
4. Le cabinet du due d'Aumont (reprint, New York, 1986).
5. The ewers were among a group of objects entrusted by
Marie-Antoinette to the marchands-merders Dominique
Daguerre and Martin-Eloi Lignereux in 1789. They
divulged the whereabouts of the objects in 1793, and an
inventory was taken before they were moved to the
museum (today the Musee du Louvre).

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