Page 30 - Mounted Oriental Porcelain, The Getty Museum

designs for craftsmen to follow but rather catalogue
material issued by a marchand-mercier. The same prob-
ably can be said of certain drawings in the Berlin Kunst-
bibliothek. 67 Engraved designs for mounted porcelain
are rare and not always distinguishable from mounted
vases of other materials such as marble. No doubt these
and the numerous series of engraved designs of vases
produced throughout the eighteenth century in France
played their part in influencing the style of mounts.
Engraved designs for silver also influenced the design of
gilt-bronze mounts. 68
In France, the most popular types of porcelain for
mounting at first were the blue-and-white wares that
were arriving in great quantities well before the end of
69
the seventeenth century. In the eighteenth century, taste
gradually changed and the celadons and other mono-
chrome wares tended to be preferred for mounting. 70
Especially appreciated were the gray-crackled wares (re-
ferred to as porcelaine truittee, where the cracks in the
glaze formed a minute network, and as porcelaine cra-
quelee, where the cracks were larger). In the eighteenth
century, the distinction between Chinese and Japanese
porcelain was a good deal more blurred than it is today.
Most celadons, for example, were believed to be of FIGURE 14. Drawing in pen and wash by a member of the Slodtz
Japanese origin and were described in sale catalogues as family (probably Michel-Ange Slodtz) for a perfume fountain,
"porcelaines d'ancien celadon du Japon." Because less composed of a Chinese porcelain vase mounted with hounds, scrolls
use in one of Louis xv's
of gilt bronze, etc. Probably intended for
Japanese than Chinese porcelain reached the European hunting boxes. Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale.
market, it was more highly prized than the Chinese.
It was not uncommon in the eighteenth century to
combine oriental and European porcelain in a single have been combined to suggest a boy looking into a peep-
piece. The desired effect in mounting porcelain at all was, show, a common enough sight in eighteenth-century
after all, decorative rather than archaeological or scien- France but with no direct equivalent in China. Much
tific. Porcelain flowers of European manufacture, which more elaborate effects were often produced in which Far
were invented at Meissen and enjoyed a widespread Eastern and European porcelain were used together. 72
vogue in 17305 and 17405, when they were exported all The marchand-mercier Gersaint, whose shop A La
over Europe, were frequently used for this purpose. Pagode specialized in orientalia of all sorts, tells us that
After 1745, such flowers began to be made at Vincennes the type of porcelain most frequently found in early-
and tended to displace Meissen flowers, especially when eighteenth-century Paris had a yellow ground, but that
combined with oriental porcelains mounted in Paris. this porcelain was hardly ever mounted. His introduc-
Typical of this practice is a pair of candelabra sold by tion to the sale catalogue of the famous Fonspertuis col-
Lazare Duvaux to "M. de FONTAINE Fermier general" lection in 1748 gives a good summary of European views
on March 13, 1756: "Une paire de girandoles a terasse on Far Eastern porcelains at that date, and it seems
7l
et brancages dores d'or moulu sur des magots anciens, worthwhile to quote it here in full as a coda to this
bleu-celeste, garnis de fleurs de Vincennes assorties . . . introduction:
264 Ifivres]." On en voit aussi de bleue, de rouge et de verte, mais
Such pieces were functional, but they relate to an-
ces couleurs sont difficiles a etendre egalement et rare-
other decorative use of oriental porcelain combined with ment elles reussissent; ce qui en rend les morceaux
porcelain of European origin. This is exemplified by cata- fort chers quand Us sont parfaits. Yen ai vu meme de
logue no. 10, in which two or more different objects are noire, mais elle fort rare id; elle ne pourrait plaire que
united for a purely pictorial effect. In this piece, two quite par sa rarite cette couleur la rendant trop triste. Enfin
disparate objects of Chinese porcelain, a figure of a boy, la Porcelaine la plus ordinaire est a fond blanc, avec
flower-covered rockwork, and a pierced porcelain sphere fleurs bleues, paysages, figures ou animaux.

INTRODUCTION 17