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168
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168. A very rare Sèvres coupe réticulée, circa 1845
168
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168. A very rare Sèvres coupe réticulée, circa 1845
Estimate €20,000 - €30,000
Voluntary lot
Description
168. A very rare Sèvres coupe réticulée, circa 1845
The reticulated walls decorated in polychrome enamels, with pierced roundels featuring red scrolled motifs alternating with closed roundels decorated with flowers, the foot with fish-scale openwork leading to a burgundy-ground base decorated with a band of mirrored flowers enclosed within an interlocking gilt Gothic scroll, the inside rim decorated with a richly painted crown of flowers, the well with a gilt strapwork roundel at the centre, 24.7cm high, crowned "LP" monogram stamped in underglaze-blue and dated 1845 to base, various incised numerals and letters to base, gilder's mark for Richard
Provenance
Given to King Louis-Philippe in 1845;
Acquired by the present owner's grandfather in the 1970s (thence by descent)
Please note: this lot is accompanied by an Art Loss Register certificate available on request.
This coupe appears in the sales records of the manufactory, dated 20 September 1845, as a "coupe réticulée à 3 fleurons fond brun pourpré, couronne de fleurs à l'intérieur" priced at 750 livres (AS MNC, Vv 4, folio 48). The annotations to a preparatory sketch from 1842 reveal two versions; one with a decoration of six openwork flowerheads and another with three painted reserves alternated with three openwork flowerheads, of which the present coupe exhibits the latter design (AS, 2012.1.1855).
In the list of presents from the manufactory to King Louis-Philippe dated 18 December 1845, there is mention of a "coupe réticulée à six fleurons, décor en or et couleur, couronne de fleurs à l'intérieur" [reticulated coupe with six flowerheads, decorated with gilding and colour, the inside with a crown of flowers], priced at 750 livres and delivered with its case (AS MNC, Vbb11, folio 6v). Although the description erroneously mentions six pierced fleurons (flowerheads) instead of three, the explicit mention of the floral guarland decoration and the identical object number (69) in both the list of presents to the King and the sales records for 1845 confirm the royal provenance.
The present coupe is among the most technically audacious and stylistically inventive wares ever created at the Sèvres manufactory. The first reticulated pieces appeared in 1831, as Alexandre Brongniart, the director of the manufactory, tasked his chief modeller Hyacinthe Régnier with designing a déjeuner in the Chinese style. Such a demand was born from Brongniart's unceasing quest to perfect and improve the technical and scientific aspects of porcelain production at Sèvres, but also from first-hand experience handling reticulated pieces from Asia; Brongniart had in fact acquired at auction in 1826 four Chinese porcelain pieces featuring openwork panels belonging to the Parisian dealer François Sallé. The coupe réticulée is certainly the rarest of all the various Chinese-inspired reticulated forms created during the period 1830-1870—while some fifty déjeuner chinois réticulé were created at the manufactory, only a handful remain today, the majority of which are in museums. The coupe form appears far less frequently in the sales registers and work records; including the present lot, only three were made in 1845 of which two were destined for royal patrons, King Louis Philippe and his grandson the Comte de Paris (the latter sold at Bonhams London, 7 July 2022, lot 184).
The process of reticulation, by which an internal body integral to the structure is layered with a purely decorative external wall that is then cut and pierced with tracery panels, was lengthy and labour-intensive with a high chance of failure or breakage. In Brongniart's Traité (1844), he describes the three initial stages of conception, each relying on a different craftsman: the thrower to make the interior body, a modeller to make the external walls, and a cutter to carve intricate patterns into the leather-hard clay before firing (for more information see Alan P. Darr, "A 19th Century Royal Sèvres Déjeuner Chinois Réticulé," French Porcelain Society Journal, vol. IV, p. 146).
We would like to thank Ms. Delphine Valmalle from the Sèvres archives for her help in obtaining the records cited in this footnote.
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