French Blue Opaline Glass and Ormolu Mounted Square Jardinière, Baccarat

Description

A French blue opaline glass jardinière painted with flowers by Baccarat, signed with a date underneath, formed as a square vessel with rounded corners and a broad open mouth. The body carries an even sky blue opaline ground with a narrow gilt line around the rim, while the interior is finished in a white glaze like surface. Each side is decorated with hand painted enamel botanical studies arranged as upright flower groups. One panel shows a red poppy bloom with a dark center, accompanied by a pink blossom, yellow broom blossoms, and small white star flowers on green stems. Another panel presents white chamomile type daisy blooms with yellow centers beside yellow blossoms and a pink flower on a red stem, with layered green leaves gathered at the base. Additional panels repeat mixed wildflower groupings with yellow and pink blossoms and green foliage. The glass vessel is held in a gilt bronze stand with four scrolling supports and oval side handles. A beaded rail runs along the top edge of the mount, and beaded swags hang between the supports, centered by a small roundel. The stand terminates in scroll feet that extend outward under the corners of the glass. This jardinière is identified as Baccarat blue opaline, with painted enamel decoration and a gilt bronze presentation mount. The underside of the base shows a white reserve with a red handwritten inscription reading “8 Novembre.” The year is understood as 1870, though the visible inscription in the provided images records the day and month rather than a full written year. Baccarat produced opaline glass in a range of colored grounds during the 1800s, including blue examples intended for table and interior use. Opaline bodies were often finished with enamel painted floral decoration, using opaque color fields as a ground for naturalistic plant studies. In the same period, gilt bronze mounts were commonly made as separate frameworks that protected corners, provided handles, and raised the vessel above the surface. The mounting style on this example uses a rectilinear support plan suited to a square glass form, with beaded borders and swag chains as repeated structural ornament. Keywords: Baccarat, blue opaline, French opaline glass, enamel painted flowers, gilt bronze mounted jardinière, cachepot, Napoleon III period, 1870 date inscription, “8 Novembre.”

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