A very rare pair of late Louis XV celadon fleuri porcelain vases "aux enfants tritons" from the collection of the Duc de Chaulnes, circa 1770, Paris. Gilt bronze and Chinese porcelain. Height: 35.5 cm. Width: 22.5 cm. Width and depth of bases: 12 cm. PASCAL IZARN at TEFAF 2024. © 2024 TEFAF

Provenance :Marie-Joseph-Louis d’Albert d’Ailly, 6th Duc de Chaulnes (1741-1792) and Marie-Anne Lambert (d. 1792), his second wife
Sold Sotheby’s Parke-Bernet, New York, 7 April 1979, lot 28
Maurice Segoura, Paris and New York
Collection of Félix Houphouët-Boigny (1905-1993),
Sold Sotheby’s New York, 19 November 1993, lot 19
Collection of Ann and Gordon Getty, San Francisco.

Literature: Connaissance des Arts, December 1979, p. 17, no. 334.
M. Segoura, Splendeurs du XVIIIe siècle français, Paris, 1980.
D. Dorrans Saeks, Ann Getty: Interior style, New York, 2012.

Marie-Joseph-Louis, 6th Duc de Chaulnes (1741-1792), possessed one of the most beautiful cabinets of Chinese curiosities in Europe. It contained bronzes, lacquers and musical instruments, a vast library, and a set of the famous prints of the Conquêtes de l’empereur de Chine (Conquests of the Chinese emperor) engraved in France under the direction of Charles-Nicolas Cochin (1715-1790) at the request of the Qianlong Emperor.

There are several sources and testimonies by which we can understand this vast collection. One is the description of his apartment in the rue de Bondi published by Thiéry in 1787, where appear: « quantités de pagodes, de cabinets, et de cabarets chinois[…] beaucoup de vases de porcelaines de la Chine et du Japon » (several pagodas, cabinets, and Chinese cabarets[…] many porcelain vases from China and Japan). Another is the catalogue of the sale of his collections just before his death in 1790, where are cited porcelains with Chinese decors made by the Royal Manufacture of Sèvres, and quantities of rare porcelains from China or Japan, « ces morceaux si difficiles à rassembler » (these pieces so difficult to collect) which proved to be « d’un choix de la plus grande distinctions » (a choice of the greatest distinctions).

The Duc de Chaulnes was no doubt very attached to these two vases, seeing as they did not appear in the 1790 sale catalogue. Indeed, they remained with Marie-Anne Lambert, his second wife, who died on 28 February 1792 at the château de Chaulnes in the Somme region. They are recorded in the inventory following the death of Marie-Anne, where the distinctive design of the bases is precisely described leaving no doubt that it refers to this pair.

In the 20th Century, the 6th Duc de Chaulnes’s celadon vases were owned by important amateurs fascinated by classical French taste. Acquired at the end of the 1970s by the antique dealer Maurice Ségoura, they then appeared among the collections of Félix Houphouët-Boigny (1905-1993), President of the Ivory Coast. Later, they adorned the living room of the recognized decorator and knowledgeable collector, Ann Getty (1941-2020) at her residence in Pacific Heights in San Francisco.