Description
IMARI PORCELAIN POULE and its Louis XV period frame Japanese porcelain, Edo period, early 18th century Paris frame, Louis XV period, circa 1740-1750 Porcelain with blue, red and gold decoration, gilt bronze with mercury H. 28.5 cm, L. 18.5 cm This Imari hen reminds us that the infatuation of Europeans with Japanese porcelain in the 17th and 18th centuries was not limited to vases and dishes. Augustin Blondel de Gagny owned "two cocqs on contoured feet with panels, framed in gilt bronze" (Blondel sale, 1776, lot 627) that the whole of Paris praised during his lifetime, when they were still in his hotel on the Place de Vendôme. Hébert reports that this great officer of the King had "ancient porcelains of the most perfect kind & almost all of the kind which one calls first kind, whose mounts seem to dispute of price with the pieces which they accompany" (Hébert, Dictionnaire historique et pittoresque de Paris, 1766, I, p. 36). Although roosters are numerous in the catalogues of the best Parisian sales and are well represented in the Chinese collection of the Royal Palace of Drottningholm, hens are more rare. Our hen, resting on its tree stump, has a similar piece in the Fitwilliam Museum (fig. 1). Ours is enriched with a gilt bronze rocaille mount whose curves perfectly match the contours of the porcelain. Additional information from the collector is available by QR Code in the PDF. Collector's information sheet updated with the results of analysis of the brass according to the Heginbotham protocol
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IMARI PORCELAIN POULE and its Louis XV period frame Japanese porcelain, Edo period, early 18th century Paris frame, Louis XV period, circa 1740-1750 Porcelain with blue, red and gold decoration, gilt bronze with mercury H. 28.5 cm, L. 18.5 cm This Imari hen reminds us that the infatuation of Europeans with Japanese porcelain in the 17th and 18th centuries was not limited to vases and dishes. Augustin Blondel de Gagny owned "two cocqs on contoured feet with panels, framed in gilt bronze" (Blondel sale, 1776, lot 627) that the whole of Paris praised during his lifetime, when they were still in his hotel on the Place de Vendôme. Hébert reports that this great officer of the King had "ancient porcelains of the most perfect kind & almost all of the kind which one calls first kind, whose mounts seem to dispute of price with the pieces which they accompany" (Hébert, Dictionnaire historique et pittoresque de Paris, 1766, I, p. 36). Although roosters are numerous in the catalogues of the best Parisian sales and are well represented in the Chinese collection of the Royal Palace of Drottningholm, hens are more rare. Our hen, resting on its tree stump, has a similar piece in the Fitwilliam Museum (fig. 1). Ours is enriched with a gilt bronze rocaille mount whose curves perfectly match the contours of the porcelain. Additional information from the collector is available by QR Code in the PDF. Collector's information sheet updated with the results of analysis of the brass according to the Heginbotham protocol
