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THE PORCELAIN EDO PERIOD (LATE 17TH/EARLY 18TH CENTURY), THE MOUNTS THIRD QUARTER 18TH CENTURY Each tapering octagonal bowl decorated with flower sprays and birds perched on cherry tree branches, above a dished base with a trailing husk frieze with an acanthus and berried boss, on conforming scroll supports terminating in hoof feet 7 in. (18 cm.) high; 8 ? in. (21 cm.) diameter
With their jewel-like ormolu mounts, these superb Japanese Kakiemon hexagonal bowls clearly reflect the renewed enthusiasm for Japanese works of art at the French Court during the 1780's. The appetite for Japanese lacquer amongst French amateurs is well-known - amongst the earliest collectors being both the painter Fran?ois Boucher and Madame de Pompadour, who owned the Van Diemen Box, possibly the most famous piece of Japanese lacquer of the period and also the most expensive piece of lacquer sold in any 18th Century sale (R. Freyberger, 'The Randon de Boisset Sale, 1777: Decorative Arts', Apollo, April 1980, pp. 298-303). This taste was subsequently adopted by both Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, and is demonstrated by the quantities of Japanese lacquer-mounted furniture executed for the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne by Martin Carlin and Jean-Henri Riesener, both for Versailles and Saint-Cloud, but particularly by the Queen’s fabled collection of Japanese lacquer objects, the nucleus of which she has inherited from her mother, Empress Maria Theresia, in 1780.
Kakiemon porcelain was equally prized and featured - alongside lacquer and hardstones set in precious ormolu mounts - in the most celebrated collections formed during the reign of Louis XVI. The duc d’ Aumont (d. 1782), premier gentilhomme de la Chambre du Roi, had acquired at least four Kakiemon vases in the 1777 sale of fermier-general Paul-Louis Randon de Boisset, which were later valued at 1200 and 900 livres per pair in the duc’s inventory and were subsequently sold in his sale. The larger vases were in the Collection of the Louvre by 1793; one was sent to St. Cloud in 1802 where it remained until 1870. The pair to the large vase disappeared; the smaller pair, bought by the comte de Merle, reappeared when sold Sotheby’s London 29-30 April 1965, lot 24 (D. Alcouffe, et. al., Gilt Bronzes in the Louvre, Dijon, 2004, no. 119, pp. 237-239). The duc’s collection of Kakiemon porcelain also included various octagonal bowls a huit pans or octogone, described as 'mortiers', and very similar to the present lot.
The gilt-bronze mounts of these Kakiemon and other porcelain items, especially when conceived for the most discerning patrons, were invariably precious and sophisticated. Particularly noteworthy are the mounts of a Chinese turquoise porcelain fountain in the Collection of Marie-Antoinette, which incorporates mounts virtually identical to those of the present lot (D. Alcouffe. op.cit., no. 126, pp. 254-255), and were almost certainly executed by the same artist. One of the Queens favoured bronzier was Francois Remond, who apparently supplied most of the precious, small-scale mounts for her Japanese lacquer boxes (P.X. Hans in Marie-Antoinette, exh. cat., Paris, 2008, no. 140, pp. 199-200), and it is possible he was responsible for the creation of the mounts of the present bowls.