428 - EXCEPTIONAL “FONTAINE”-SHAPED VASE IN SÈVRES PORCELAIN FROM THE LOUIS-PHILIPPE PERIOD

EXCEPTIONAL “FONTAINE”-SHAPED VASE IN SÈVRES PORCELAIN FROM THE LOUIS-PHILIPPE PERIOD “Fontaine”-shaped vase in hard porcelain, with polychrome decoration in gold and platinum, the neck featuring a pink band with spiral fluting on a pale green background; the handles consist of openwork, gilded acanthus leaf volutes, terminating in grotesque masks from which the vase derives its name. The shoulder features water leaves in platinum and gold, surmounted by a band of Greek motifs adorned with pink and yellow flower heads. The bulbous body is painted—probably by Joseph Lejour—with two large hanging garlands of assorted flowers on a linen-gray background. The lower section is molded in relief with rigid green leaves and stylized gilded flower heads, resting on a circular foot with a red background topped by a band of polychrome laurel leaves. The lid is missing; the pedestal has a hole in the bottom with a chip on the reverse side and has been reattached. Royal Sèvres Manufactory, circa 1844. Mark on the crown-topped LP stamped in blue with an erased date, an incised mark dated 1841 (the year the form was created), a painted FB mark for François-Hubert Barbin (1786–1857), and the mark of the gilder Jean-Louis Moyez. H. 47 cm. Related Work The second vase, identical to ours and forming a pair, was sold at Millon on April 25, 2025, lot 254 (sold for €39,000). History The drawing used as the design for this vase, titled “fountain vase” and dated 1841, is held in the Sèvres archives (inv.: 2012.1.3497, see ill. 1). A third vase, painted by Joseph Lejour, is housed at the Adrien Dubouché National Museum in Limoges (inv.: ADL 9576; acquired by the museum in 1990 and published in Chantal Meslin-Pierrier, *Le Musée national Adrien Dubouché, Limoges*, Paris, 1992). This vase, preserved with its lid, was awarded to the artist Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot at the 1848 Paris Salon, where he received a second-class medal. It is likely that Lejour also painted the floral garlands on our vase. Joseph Lejour was a floral painter at Sèvres from 1843 to 1854. Notably, he created floral panels for the “Turque à Musique” clock presented at the 1846 Louvre exhibition. The ornamental elements, meanwhile, were painted by François-Hubert Barbin, an ornamental painter active at Sèvres from 1815 to 1848, whose monogram “FB” appears on the base of the vase. Certain elements of the decoration, such as the band of rigid green leaves at the base and the smaller band of rigid gold and platinum leaves at the shoulder, can be compared to the “Egyptian B” or “Champollion Egyptian” vase, created in 1832 by Develly and Barbin and housed at the Château de Compiègne (inv. C195c). A watercolor from 1832 is reproduced by Tamara Praud in *The Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory: Alexandre Brongniart and the Triumph of Art and Industry, 1800–1847*, New York, 1997, pp. 262–263, cat. no. 72, where the author notes that in 1844, two vases of the same shape, painted by Pierre Huard, were included in the May sales inventory and were exhibited at the Exposition des Manufactures Royales at the Louvre in June. The painted garlands bear a close resemblance to a “Thericlean” vase, presented by King Louis-Philippe to the Standish family in 1844. This vase, now in the collection of the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, England (inv. no. 1995.33), is illustrated and discussed by Howard Coutts, “Louis Philippe’s Gifts to the Standish Family,” The French Porcelain Society Journal, Vol. VII, 2018, p. 168, fig. 4. It was originally part of a pair valued at 1,000 francs each, decorated by Jean-Joseph Fontaine (active 1827–1857) and gilded by Pierre Riton (active from 1821 to 1860).