Lot 329. A pair of gilt-bronze mounted celadon porcelain cachepots, Louis XV, circa 1745-1749. Estimate 20,000 — 30,000 GBP (25,770 - 38,655 EUR). Photo Sotheby's.

each of cylindrical form, the celadon decorated with incised flower and stylized leaf motifs, with a scroll and stylized leaf cast rim mount and two scrolled bifurcated handles with acanthus and flowerheads, the base with alternating c-scrolls, rocaille, foliage and flowers; each with crowned C mark to bronze; 16cm. high, 26cm. wide; 6¼in, 10¼in.

Note: The taste for finely mounted oriental porcelain, which had already flourished during the previous decade, reached its peak in Paris in the 1750s. The marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux (1703-1758), who worked closely with the best bronziers of the age, including Jean-Claude Duplessis (1699-1774) and Jacques Caffieri (1678-1755), frequently supplied his prestigious clientele with such vases. For instance, in December 1752 his diary registers the sale of “deux vases de porcelaine céladon ancienne, montes en bronze doré d’or molu” to Madame de Pompadour, one of his most preeminent patrons and a collector of celadon objects.

One lacquer cachepot with almost identical mounts to the present lot possibly delivered by Duvaux to Madame de Pompadour at the Château de Bellevue is now at the Louvre, illustrated by Daniel Alcouffe, op. cit., p. 95.