Royal Pair of Sèvres Porcelain '1867 Paris Exhibition' Vases and Covers

Description

A large pair of ormolu-mounted Se`vres Porcelain Bleu Celeste '1867 Exhibition' vases and covers (‘Vase Paris de Milieu Garnis’), ‘l’Abreuvoir’ and ‘Le Retour’ De Champs’ 1860, one cover incised 69 and 5, the gilding by E.F. Blanchard, the painting signed Em.(ile) Van Marcke (de Lummen) of baluster form, the domed cover with berried finial, each center finely painted by Van Marcke with a Barbizon panel of herders bringing their flock to water, reserved within a gilt cartouche, flanked by scrolling foliate handles, the socle banded in gilt and edged by a Vitruvian scroll 32 ½ in. high. Exhibited: Paris Exposition Universelle, 1867. Provenance: One of two pair known and most certainly corresponding to the 'bleu' celeste pair delivered to the Queen of Holland on January 1868, see the Se`vres sale room registry, (Vbb. 12, folio 50). On the 30th of September 1860 the registry at Se`vres lists two pair of 'Vases Paris de milleu garnis, pa^te tender fond bleu de´cor en or / Sujet de figures et d’animaux paysages par Van Marcke / ornament garniture Blanchard.' The sole distinction between the two entries is that one is ‘bleu’ and the other is ‘turquoise’. Both were exhibited at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1867 (nos. 164-165 and no. 160, respectively). The ‘bleu’ pair were offered to the Queen of Holland on January 1868 (Vbb. 12, folio 50); the ‘turquoise’ were sold to M. Grace on 27 November 1867. The registry also retains a black and white photographic record of one of the pairs, which corresponds directly to the decoration on the present example, the registry card dated 1860. E´mile Van Marcke de Lummen (French, 1827-1891) is recorded as a painter on porcelain at the Manufacture de Se`vres from 1853-1870. He was also a noted Barbizon painter who studied with Constant Troyon. He exhibited at the Paris salons from 1857 on, receiving medal in 1867, 1869, 1870 and was invested with the Legion of Honor in 1872. His work is in the collections of numerous museums in France as well as The Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Van Marcke was born in Se`vres, Hauts-de-Seine, to a family of porcelain painters: his Belgian grandfather, Charles Van Marcke (1773-1830) and father, Jean-Baptiste Jules Van Marcke (1797-1848), painted at Se`vres from 1825 to 1832. It was there that Jean-Baptiste met his wife and E´mile’s mother, Julie Palmyra Robert, herself an artist and daughter of the director of the painting workshops at the Se`vres factory.

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