Porcelaine de Sèvres : chinoiseries à fond noir ou fond d'écaille à l'imitation du laque

L'intéressante fiche descriptive de deux assiettes, prochainement présentées en vente aux enchères, me donne l'idée de l'ouverture de ce sujet.
Je cite l'annonce (extraits), de l'une d'entre-elles, et la complèterai de quelques autres illustrations et commentaires.

Sèvres - Rare assiette en porcelaine dure à décor en or et platine sur fond noir imitant le laque,
au centre de deux Chinois assis sur une balançoire posée sur un tronc d’arbre sur une terrasse, d’après une gravure de Jean Pillement, et sur l’aile de trois terrasses rocheuses animées de Chinois au parasol, Chinois en prière, autel, char, pagodes et oiseaux.
Marquée en or : LL entrelacés, lettre-date OO pour 1791, marques des doreurs Vincent et Bulidon.
XVIIIe siècle, 1791
Diam. 24,1 cm





Présentation :

La manufacture de Sèvres produit dans les années 1778-1782 des porcelaines à fond imitant l’aventurine ou le laque et notamment à partir de 1779 à fond noir, obtenu à partir d’oxyde de fer, de cobalt et de manganèse, qu’elle décore le plus souvent en or et argent, faisant ainsi écho au renouveau du goût pour les meubles en laque. L’argent s’oxydant, cette production est provisoirement stoppée.

En avril 1790, le comte d’Angiviller, directeur général des Bâtiments du Roi, en charge de la manufacture de Sèvres, écrit à Régnier, directeur de la manufacture pour le féliciter d’avoir acheté 3 livres et demi de platine :

« C’est une acquisition qu’il ne falloit pas manquer et j’approuve fort cela que vous avez faite. Car je compte beaucoup sur ce nouveau genre de décoration que certainement aucune autre Manufacture n’attrapera » (Arch. cité de la céramique, H5 liasse 1). Ainsi le platine remplace avantageusement l’argent.

Entre 1790 et 1793, la manufacture va réaliser une quarantaine de vases, cuvettes à fleurs, pots à eau, bougeoirs, service à thé et service de table à fond noir décorés en or de couleur et platine.

Un premier service est vendu le 6 mai 1791 au marquis de Sémonville (1759-1839), ambassadeur de Louis XVI à Gênes. Il comportait 48 assiettes à 45 livres chacune, complété par de nouveaux achats par Sémonville dans les semaines suivantes. Les assiettes de ce service sont décorées sur l’aile de scènes chinoises en or et platine sur fond noir et de fleurs émaillées polychrome au centre.

Un second service est acheté le 4 avril 1792 par James Milmes, marchand anglais de textile, et comprend 48 assiettes à 48 livres, certaines à fleurs émaillées, d’autres à fond entièrement noir, décrites fond noir plein, chinois en or de couleurs et platine, comme nos deux assiettes.

Enfin, le citoyen Empaytaz et Compagnie achète à la fin de l’année 1794 une partie de service à fond noir, produite en 1791 et restée en stock dans la manufacture. Empaytaz et Compagnie sont négociants et achètent à la manufacture de Sèvres à ce moment vingt-cinq services de table et une grande quantité d’autres objets pour la somme considérable de 230.706 livres.
Pierre-Fédécie Empaytaz, décrit comme marchand, rue et Section de la Réunion, n° 713, agissait notamment en qualité d’agent commercial en France pour le Roi de Prusse. Ce service à fond noir était composé de 71 pièces dont 21 assiettes et mélangeait des pièces à fond entièrement noir et d’autres à fleurs émaillées sur le fond blanc.

Au XIXe siècle, en 1844, le prince Nicolay Borisovich Yusupov est propriétaire de 107 pièces du service à fond noir. En 1887, elles ne sont plus que 32 en possession de la famille Yusupov.
Quinze de ces éléments du service sont aujourd’hui conservés au musée de l’Ermitage à Saint-Pétersbourg comprenant cinq assiettes à fond entièrement noir (Nina Birioukova et Natalia Kazakevitch, La porcelaine de Sèvres du XVIII siècle, 2005, pp. 189-193, n° 946-954).

Douze assiettes sont conservées au Metropolitan Museum de New York (Christian Dauterman, Sèvres, 1969, p. 52, pl. II) et deux autres assiettes au Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art de Kansas City.
Deux seaux à demi-bouteille datés 1791 sont conservés au musée Getty à Malibu (Adrian Sassoon, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Vincennes and Sevres Porcelain, Catalogue of the Collections, 1991, n° 30, pp. 152-157).
Deux assiettes se sont vendues chez Christie’s à New York en 2010 (Christie’s, New York, 22 octobre 2010, lot 639). Enfin une assiette s’est vendue en 2018 à l’hôtel Drouot (étude Pescheteau-Badin, 18 juin 2018, lot 120).

La scène centrale de (ces deux) assiettes a pour source des gravures de Jean Avril d’après un dessin de Jean Pillement, figurant dans le Cahier de Balançoires chinoises inventées et dessinées par J. Pillement Premier peintre du Roi de Pologne.


D'après le Cahier de Balançoires Chinoises Inventées et Dessinées par J. Pillement
Initialement Gravé par J. J. Avril, a Paris. Chez Dalmon...c 1770
Images : Gallica

Pour étude des décors imitant le laque à la manufacture de Sèvres, voir Selma Schwartz, « Chinoiserie Decoration on Black-ground Sèvres Porcelain », Schwartz Porcelain - The Lacquer Craze and its Impact on European Porcelain, catalogue d’exposition, Museum für Lackkunst and Schloss Favorite near Rastatt, 2003, vol. III, pp. 98-107.
(...)

* Source et infos complémentaires : Adjug'Art Brest - Vente du 2 mars 2021



Infos complémentaires et autres illustrations, à suivre...

Absolument superbe, merci beaucoup, j'adore.

J'ai vu une tasse imitant le laque chez Van der Meersch il y a quelques mois, ainsi qu'à  la dernière vente Pescheteau-Badin, telle que voici :



Soucoupe de gobelet litron de la troisième grandeur en porcelaine dure à décor en or et argent sur fond noir à l’imitation du laque de papillons et volatiles parmi des pagodes sur terrasses.
Marquée : LL entrelacés et couronnés, lettre-date 11 pour 1778, marque du peintre Le Grand.
XVIIIe siècle, 1778.
D. 12,5 cm.

Ainsi a-t-on imité le laque de plusieurs manières, non seulement en tôle peinte mais également en porcelaine.

Duc d'Ostrogothie a écrit:Absolument superbe, merci beaucoup, j'adore.

J'ai vu une tasse imitant le laque chez Van der Meersch il y a quelques mois, ainsi qu'à  la dernière vente Pescheteau-Badin, telle que voici :

Oui ! Merci pour cette illustration.  
Il s'agissait donc des premières productions de ce style par la manufacture avec utilisation de l'argent (qui s'oxydait) et non pas de platine (à partir des années 90).

La nuit, la neige a écrit:
Un premier service est vendu le 6 mai 1791 au marquis de Sémonville (1759-1839), ambassadeur de Louis XVI à Gênes. Il comportait 48 assiettes à 45 livres chacune, complété par de nouveaux achats par Sémonville dans les semaines suivantes.
Les assiettes de ce service sont décorées sur l’aile de scènes chinoises en or et platine sur fond noir et de fleurs émaillées polychrome au centre.

En complément, je cite l'extrait du catalogue d'une vente aux enchères organisée par la maison Christie's :

PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN FAUX LACQUER AT SEVRES

Though Asian lacquer was prized among the elite throughout much of the late 17th and 18th century, Marie Antoinette’s creation of her Grand Cabinet Intérieur at Versailles in the 1780s reignited the trend. Cabinet makers like Jean Henri Riesener and Adam Weiswiler produced fabulous French furniture with a Chinoiserie twist, and Sèvres, the porcelain manufactory of the King, was eager to follow suit.

Faux lacquer decoration was primarily produced at Sèvres over a fifteen year period, beginning in the early 1790s, once the ability to precipitate platinum was achieved, though a small number of pieces before that time are known. Made by applying thick layers of deep cobalt-blue glazes to create a black ground color, works were then carefully painted in gold and platinum to look like Cantonese lacquer.
(...)

A Sèvres Porcelain Black-ground Chinoiserie Ice-cooler (sceau à trépied)
Circa 1790-91, blue interlaced L'S mark
Conceived as a brazier, the circular bowl with wide rim decorated with vignettes of chinoiserie figures at various pursuits, including taming a large bird, supported by monopodia paw feet surmounted by lion masks suspending rings, the lower-body, leg and cruci-form base with trailing wreaths of flowering vine, the blossoms edged in gilt in the manner of cloisonné enamel.
Image : Christie's

Provenance : Delivered 6 May 1791 to Charles-Louis Huguet de Sémonville, who served as Envoy- Extraordinary to Genoa 14 July 1791-10 October 1792.


Set of Four Sèvres Black-Ground Chinoiserie Plates, circa 1790-91
One with crowned interlaced L'S mark and painters mark for Didier père, incised T ; the remaining three with blue interlaced LS and incised scribt T or CC marks, one with gilder's mark in blue for a member of the Weydinger family.
Each decorated in chased two-tone gilt and platinum with a chinoiserie vignette on a black octagonal panel centering a trailing wreath of flowering vine, the blossoms edged in gilt in the manner of cloisonné enamel, the border decorated with three further vignettes
9 5/8 in. (23.8 cm.) diameter
Image : Christie's

Provenance : Almost certainly from the service described in the sales records as Fond noir, chinois en ors de Couleurs et Platine. Fleurs émaillées and delivered 6 May 1791 to Charles-Louis Huguet de Sémonville, who served as Envoy- Extraordinary to Genoa 14 July 1791 - 10 October 1792.

Image : Christie's


Set of Four Sèvres Black-Ground Chinoiserie Plates, circa 1790-91
Purple crowned interlaced L'S to three, gilder's mark for Girard and incised TT to two, the third with an axe possibly for Rosset l'aîné and incised C, the fourth with blue interlaced L'S and incised C
Each decorated in chased two-tone gilt and platinum with a chinoiserie vignette on a black octagonal panel centering a trailing wreath of flowering vine, the blossoms edged in gilt in the manner of cloisonné enamel, the border decorated with three further vignettes
9 5/8 in. (24.5 cm.) diameter
Image : Christie's

Image : Christie's


Quelques exemples de pièces de service à " fond noir plein ", à décors de chinoiserie en or de couleurs et platine :  


Porcelain plate decorated with a black ground in imitation of Asian lacquer
France, Sèvres Manufactory (French, 1740–present), 1791
Decorator : Jean-Jacques Dieu (French, active 1776–91, 1794–98, 1801–5)
Hard-paste porcelain
Diameter: 9 1/2 in. (24.1 cm)
Image : The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Présentation du musée

Porcelain decorated with a black ground in imitation of Asian lacquer was produced at Sèvres for about a fifteen-year period beginning in 1790.
Furniture decorated with imported black lacquer panels saw a resurgence of popularity in the last two decades of the eighteenth century, and the Sèvres factory's efforts to simulate black lacquer on porcelain were probably stimulated by this renewed general interest in lacquer decoration.

Black-ground Sèvres porcelain was decorated with chinoiserie scenes executed in gold, which was often applied in subtle tones of yellow, green, and red. Small decorative highlights were often executed in platinum, and the ability to apply platinum—first mastered by the factory in 1790—may have been an impetus to produce these lacquer-inspired pieces.



A pair of Sèvres (hard paste) porcelain black-ground gilt and platinum chinoiserie plates
Circa 1791 - 1793
Iron-red crowned interlaced L'S mark, painter's mark of Le Grand fils, one incised CC, the other J
Each finely decorated in two shades of gold and in platinum with Chinoiserie figures before and within pagodas, the rim with three further panels of figures in landscapes, gilt line rim
9½ in. (24.1 cm.) diameter (2)
Image : Christie's

Lot Essay

Louis-Antoine Le Grand is recorded at Sèvres as a painter of figures, Chinoiserie, birds, flowers and patterns and as a gilder, 1776-1816. He specialized in vari-colored gilding on a matte-black ground which with the addition of platinum resulted in a rich surface in imitation of Chinese lacquer. The first of the services decorated in this manner was delivered in 1791 to A. Sémonville (1759-1839), Louis XVI's ambassador to Genoa.

Recent scholarship has reattributed the mark found on these plates, previously associated with Etienne-Henry LeGuay, to Le Grand. See D. Peters, Decorator and Date Marks of 18th Century Vincennes and see Sèvres Porcelain, privately printed, London, 1997, p. 47; also M.N. Pinot de Villechenon, Sèvres Porcelain from the Sèvres Museum 1740 to the Present Day, London, 1997, p. 42, fig. 48 and p. 141 for a similarly decorated ewer and basin and its mark.

Although a concentrated dark blue ground which the eye reads as black was developed at Sèvres in the early 1780s, it was not until 6 May 1791 that the first of a series of services recorded in the factory records as "fond noir Chinois en or de couleurs et platine fleurs mail" was delivered to "A.M. de Semonville Ambassadeur".

A pair of seaux a demi-bouteille ordinaires similarly decorated to the present plates is in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum.
A pair of seaux oval crenelés from the collection of John T. Dorrance, Jr., was sold Sotheby's, New York, 20 October 1978, lot 178 and again on 25 October 1991, lot 572. A seau à liqueur oval is in a private American collection.



Pair of Wine Bottle Coolers (seaux à demi-bouteilles ordinaires)
Hard-paste porcelain; black enamel ground with platinum and gold decoration
Model originally designed in 1753 by Jean-Claude Duplessis the Elder (French, about 1695 - 1774)
France, Sèvres Manufactory, 1791
Each cooler painted in gold with the crossed "L"'s of the Sèvres manufactory under a crown for hard-paste, flanked by "OO" for 1791-1792. Triangular gilder's mark of Jean-Jacques Dieu (abraided on one).
Markings: .1 incised "AB" and .2 incised "BS" by the modellers.
Image : The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Présentation du musée :

These coolers were designed to hold half-bottles of wine set in ice or cold water and probably once formed part of a large dinner service. With their fanciful chinoiserie scenes of gold and platinum pagodas on a black ground, the wine coolers imitate Chinese lacquer work.
In the 1790s, elaborate vessels such as these were mainly purchased by wealthy clients outside of France, since the French Revolution severely reduced the number of patrons able to afford such luxurious objects.

Scholars consider the rich decoration in gold and platinum on these wine coolers to be both rare and interesting. Only in the 1780s did porcelain makers at the Sèvres manufactory succeed in producing this deep blue-black ground by mixing oxides of iron, cobalt, and manganese. In the 1770s and 1780s, the potters had experimented with silver decoration but found that it tarnished with time.
Platinum thus became a more popular alternative in the 1790s, and craftsmen used it mainly to decorate objects with black or brown grounds.
Artists also applied two colors of gold to these coolers--a yellowish and a more orangish shade--and further varied them by burnishing some areas and leaving others matte.



Porcelain plate decorated with a black ground in imitation of Asian lacquer
France, Sèvres Manufactory (French, 1740–present), 1791
Decorator: Jean-Jacques Dieu (French, active 1776–91, 1794–98, 1801–5)
Hard-paste porcelain
Diameter: 9 1/2 in. (24.1 cm)
Image : The Metropolitan Museum of Art


Dont quelques-unes des pièces conservées au musée de l'Ermitage à Saint-Pétersbourg, en provenance des collections de la famille Yusupov (voir mon premier message).
Nous retrouvons des pièces à fond blanc et d'autres à fond noir.  


Compotier - Dessert Service
Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Painter: Dieu, Jean-Jacques, active 1777-1810
France, 1791
Hard-paste porcelain - L 20,1 cm
Image : The State Hermitage Museum


Ice-Cream-Cup - Dessert Service
Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Painter: Dieu, Jean-Jacques (active 1777-1810)
France, 1791
Hard-paste porcelain - H 6,2 cm
Image : The State Hermitage Museum


Ice-Cream Bowl - Dessert Service
Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Painter: Le Grand, Louis-Antoine (active 1776-1817)
France, 1791
hard-paste porcelain ; h. 20,3; diam. 19,6 cm
Image : The State Hermitage Museum



Shell-Shaped Compotier - Dessert Service
Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Painter: Bulidon, Nicolas (active 1763-1792)
France, 1791-92
Hard-paste porcelain - Dm 23 cm
Image : The State Hermitage Museum


Round Compotier- Dessert Service
Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Painter: Mirey, François (?) (active 1785-1792)
France, 1791-92
Hard-paste porcelain - Dm 22,1 cm
Image : The State Hermitage Museum


Cup with a Saucer
Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Painter: L'Écot, Louis-François (1741/42-1800/03)
France, 1791-92
Porcelain, h. of the cup 6,5; diam. of the saucer 14 cm
Image : The State Hermitage Museum


Sugar-Bowl with a Lid on a Tray - Dessert Service
Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Painter: Le Grand, Louis-Antoine (active 1776-1817)
France, 1791-92
hard-paste porcelain - h. 10,9; tray: L. 24,2; width 14,6 cm
Image : The State Hermitage Museum


Oval Compotier - Dessert Service
Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Painter: Dieu, Jean-Jacques (active 1777-1810)
France, 1791-92
hard-paste porcelain - l. 27,5; width 19,8 cm
Image : The State Hermitage Museum


Tray with Two Confiture Pots - Dessert Service
Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Painter: Le Grand, Louis-Antoine (active 1776-1817)
France, 1791-92
hard-paste porcelain - h. 8,4; L. 25,7; diam. of pot 7 cm
Image : The State Hermitage Museum


From a set of Plates - Dessert Service
Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Painter: Bulidon, Nicolas (active 1763-1792); Painter: Vincent, Henri-François, le jeune (1733-1809); Painter: Dieu, Jean-Jacques (active 1777-1810); Painter: Rosset, Pierre-Joseph l'aîné (active 1753-1799).
France, 1791-92
hard-paste porcelain - diam. 24,3 cm
Image : The State Hermitage Museum


A suivre, quelques jolis vases....

Je ne connaissais pas du tout ce genre de production, merci !

Voici donc une série de vases en porcelaine dont la couverte rappelle le laque.

Sèvres tentait aussi de parfaire les toutes aussi rares porcelaines chinoises " noir miroir " ou " wulin ", mais dont les décorations dorées, superficielles et fragiles, s'estompaient avec le temps.

Par exemple :

Large gilt-bronze-mounted Chinese black and gold porcelain pot-pourri vase and cover
Louis XV, circa 1755, the porcelain Qianlong (1736-1795)
Image et source : Sotheby's

Extrait du catalogue concernant les porcelaines chinoises de famille "noir mirroir"

Spoiler:

Retour à la production française de la fin du XVIIIe siècle avec :



Paire de vases à monter, fond Laque
Sèvres porcelain factory (porcelain manufacturer)
Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751-1843) (dealer)
France, c. 1785
H J Hatfield & Sons (metalworker)
Louis-Simon Boizot (1743-1809) (designer)
Hard-paste porcelain, mottled black/brown ground, gilt bronze and onyx
Image : The Royal Collection Trust

Description

Sèvres hard paste porcelain pair of vases. Mottled black/brown ground (in imitation of tortoiseshell/lacquer) and gilt bronze mounts of siren figures seated on cushions, fitted into leaf cup on four monopodia on square base raised on four fluted feet above onyx square plinth. The elegance and beauty of these vases lies in the skilful combination of a simple form, mottled brown-black ground in simulation of lacquer and finely chased gilt bronze mounts, including mermaid figures and lion’s paw monopodia.
The vases resemble an annotated drawing that survives in the manufactory archives, dated 14 March 1785. Designed by Louis-Simon Boizot (1743-1809), this vase was intended to be fitted with mounts supplied by Pierre-Philippe Thomire and the drawing is annotated, 'Vase Serpent Boizot fait pour Monte par Monsieur Tomire.'



Ornamental Vases and Jug at Belton House
Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory (established 1756)
France, circa 1790-91
Hard-paste porcelain, iron and cobalt blue oxide, gold, platinum
Collection Belton House, Lincolnshire
Image : National Trust Images/Robert Morris

Présentation du musée

This porcelain jug boasts a lustrous black ground which is offset by glistening, Chinese-style designs in gold and platinum.
It is part of a larger group of ornamental vessels at Belton House, which includes six vases, made at the Royal Porcelain Manufactory, in Sèvres, just outside Paris, between 1790 and 1791.

These vessels were painted to resemble the lustrous, flawless finish of Japanese lacquerware, including boxes, screens and cabinets decorated with gold-painted scenes. Such lacquerware was at the heart of a lucrative import market from East Asia and imitations were often made as a response to more costly luxury materials that could not be easily replicated domestically.

Interest in Japanese and Chinese lacquer peaked at the French court in the 1780s. Between 1790 and 1805, the Sèvres Manufactory produced lacquer-themed table services with painted flowers in gold and platinum. Belton's ornamental vases are even rarer still.


Une paire de vases, réputés être une commande du roi Louis XVI...


Vases (vases chinois)
Sèvres Manufactory (French, 1740–present)
Decorator: Louis-François L'Écot (active 1763–65, 1772–1802)
French, Sèvres, 1791
Hard-paste porcelain, gilt bronze
Crossed Ls enclosing oo (Sèvres factory mark and year letter 1791); L in gold (decorator's mark of L'Écot)
Dimensions: Overall : H. 15-1/8 x W. 5-1/2 x D. 5 in. (38.4 x 14 x 12.7 cm)
Image : The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Provenance : probably owned by Louis XVI, King of France ; (...)



Images : The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Présentation du musée :

Factory archives indicate that Louis XVI purchased two vases chinois decorated by L'Écot in December, 1791 for the substantial price of 960 livres each.
It is likely that this was the pair acquired by the king; not only do the date and painter correspond, but the gold and platinum decoration would have justified the high price of 960 livres for each vase.



Pair of mounted vases
Sèvres porcelain factory (porcelain manufacturer)
H J Hatfield & Sons (metalworker)
After Pierre Charles Canot (1710-77) (engraver)
After Jean-Baptiste Pillement (1728-1808) (artist)
France, c. 1789-90
Hard-paste porcelain, black ground, platinum, two tones of gold and gilt bronze
Image : The Royal Collection Trust

Description :

Sèvres hard paste porcelain pair of vases. Black ground painted in two tone gold and platinum and gilt bronze mounts, floral garlands around the neck and Chinoiserie scenes of hunting and worship around the main body, chased mounts including flared lip with gadrooning and beading, circular beaded foot mounted on square base.

The inspiration for this model may have been one of the so-called Etruscan vases sold to Louis XVI by Vivant Denon (1747-1825) in 1786. This collection was placed on deposit at Sèvres to provide inspiration for the artists and sculptors. Only one other pair of vases of this form is known.

The fashion for black-ground chinoiserie scenes at Sèvres, variously described as fond noir or fond écaille, reflected the taste for oriental-inspired decoration and reached its height between 1790 and 1793. A possible source for the two figures worshipping a monkey seated on a column is an engraving published in 1759 by Pierre-Charles Canot (b.1710) after Jean-Baptiste Pillement.

The prevailing neo-classical style is represented by the gilded swags and garlands and scrolling arabesques, which, stylistically, are close to the gilt bronze mounts fitted to furniture in the Louis XVI style.

* Text adapted from French Porcelain for English Palaces, Sèvres from the Royal Collection, London, 2009




Vases à monter c. 1791-92
Sèvres porcelain factory (porcelain manufacturer)
Robert Fogg (c. 1761-1823) (dealer)
Étienne-Gabriel Girard (active 1762-1800) (gilder)
After Jean-Baptiste Pillement (1728-1808) (engraver)
After Jean Jacques Avril (1744-1831) (engraver)
Charles Brandt (repairer)
France, c. 1791 - 92
Hard-paste porcelain, platinum, two tones of gold and gilt bronze
Image : The Royal Collection Trust



Images : The Royal Collection Trust

Description

Sèvres hard paste porcelain pair of vases. Black ground, gilded decoration and gilt bronze mounts, decorated with Chinoiserie scenes in platinum and two tones of gold, urn shape with short incurving neck and lid pierced with leaf finial, corona and bells around shoulders, dragon handles overseeing strapwork pierced handles with Greek key scrolls, circular stem on moulded foot with square base.

The fanciful oriental scenes are rendered in two tones of gold and platinum on a black ground. The vases probably conform to designs provided by the marchand mercier dealer/decorator, Dominique Daguerre, who would have added the bespoke gilt bronze mounts.

The known sources for chinoiserie decoration on black ground Sèvres porcelain, introduced at the factory c.1790, include engravings after designs by Jean-Baptiste Pillement, Cantonese lacquer patterns, Chinese woodcuts and debased generic chinoiserie scenes. In this instance, two scenes on the vases are taken from engravings by Jean-Jacques Avril (1771-1835) after Pillement, published in the series Cahier de Balançoires Chinoises.

The use of platinum on a black ground, as a substitute for silver (which tarnishes), was a technical innovation introduced at Sèvres c.1789. It was used extensively in the 1790s on black ground vases and tableware decorated with chinoiserie scenes.

* Text adapted from French Porcelain for English Palaces, Sèvres from the Royal Collection, London, 2009

Et enfin...


Pair of ormolu-mounted Sèvres (hard paste) porcelain black-ground chinoiserie vases (vases à bandeau)
Decorated by Pierre-André Le Guay and Charles-Antoine Didier
The mounts of similar date and attributed to François Rémond
France, 1792
Each of baluster form with ormolu dragon handles, the dragons perched on slender tapering fretwork supports terminating at the join of the vase to the socle, the waisted black-ground necks decorated in gold and platinum with pendant interwoven garlands and beads, above central projecting white-ground horizontal bands painted on each side with polychrome chinoiserie scenes of European courtly figures in Oriental costume by pagodas, bridges and urns, the black-ground lower portion decorated in platinum and gold with chinoiserie conical canopies edged with bells below pendant swags and above foliate branches issuing from ribbons with arrows at intervals, each on an ormolu socle cast with a band of berried egg and dart ornament above down-turned stiff-leaves on a circular foot and square plinth base (both with restored chip to top of neck and with an associated crack; one with a tiny chip to top of neck; minor wear to gilding in places)
12¾ in. (32.5 cm.) high overall (2)
Image : Christie's

Provenance : Auctioned by the Revolutionary Government of France at the lottery sale at Château de Saint-Cloud in September 1797, lot 26.






Images : Christie's

Extrait de la présentation au catalogue, particulièrement intéressante, mais très longue :

THE PORCELAIN AND ITS DECORATION

In the early 1790s, Sèvres produced a selection of table wares and vases with sumptuous decoration in the manner of Asian lacquer. Created by painting different shades of gold and platinum on a black ground, the effect is arguably one of the richest decorations on porcelain ever achieved, and technologically it was also one of the most complex.

Of the approximately 40 entries in the Sèvres records for vases and other pieces of form decorated using this technique (in factory parlance 'fond noir Chinois' or 'fond noir Chinois en or'), only 23 are known to have survived, of which nearly all are now in public collections.

Of these, only 17 are vases. Traceable in the factory records for 1792, the present pair are the only vases à bandeau recorded as decorated in this style.
Uniquely combining colourful Chinoiserie scenes with the faux-lacquer decoration, they are also the only known 'vases fond noir Chinois en or' surviving in private hands.

Although the present vases are not marked, they must correspond to a pair of vases which were recorded as being worked on by Didier in July 1792 (having already been painted by Le Guay) and worked on again by Le Guay in October, before coming out of the kilns on 10th December 1792. The 1792 Painters Registers describe, under the work of Didier: 'Le 13 juillet 1792: 2 Vases, peints par M. Le Guay décoration Chinoise sur le fond noir'.
The same register for October 1792 records, under Le Guay's work: 'Le 15 8bre: 2 vases à Bandeau fond noir Sujets Chinois'.3 The pair of vases painted by Le Guay are the only vases with this type of decoration which are described as 'à Bandeau', or with a band, relating to the projecting horizontal bands below the necks.
Other black-ground vases are described in the records with terms such as 'Chinois' or 'Chinois en or', but in this instance the decoration is specifically 'Chinoise sur le fond noir' (Chinese on a black ground). The two vases are then recorded in the Kiln Register for 10th December 1792 as '2 Vases fond noir Chinois Coloriés, Le Guay Didier' (2 black ground vases coloured Chinese [scenes by] Le Guay [and] Didier).

The decoration of these vases reflects the romanticised regard with which Europe still viewed the Far East in the 18th century.
The colourful scenes show whimsical visions of Oriental life as viewed through a fanciful European lense, and have much in common with chinoiseries painted on soft-paste porcelain at Sèvres in earlier decades.
Some of these were inspired by engravings of paintings by François Boucher, Jean Pillement or Jean-Antoine Watteau, but frequently, as is the case here, an engraved source remains illusive. It is possible that engraved sources for the four scenes on these vases have yet to be discovered, but it is equally probable that the scenes were the product of the painter Le Guay's imagination.

Le Guay's whimsical scenes are uniquely complemented by shiny black grounds decorated in gold and platinum. The black-grounds decorated with chinoiseries by Didier do not specifically imitate Asian lacquer, but they are certainly inspired by it.

In the 18th century Asian lacquer (and in particular Japanese lacquer) was viewed by Europeans with a sense of awe as it was not known exactly how it was made. In France lacquer had been highly prized since the 17th century, and by the 1730s lacquer chests or screens were cut up in order to make furniture or transform them into wall panels or other decorative devices more appropriate for the European interior. As this was a prohibitively expensive method of furnishing, a large number of lacquering workshops sprang up all over Europe producing 'japanned' furniture and other decorative elements which imitated Japanese and Chinese lacquer. Some interiors were furnished with a combination of Asian lacquer and European imitation lacquer.

The relationship between porcelain and lacquer was not new in Asia, but once planted in Europe, the idea grew to produce different and innovative decorative effects.
Meissen was the first European porcelain factory to develop lacquer-style decoration, but the style was perfected at Sèvres with astonishingly fine gold and platinum decoration.

Just as Sèvres rarely imitated the forms of Asian prototypes (the majority were new creations), only a few pieces actually imitate lacquer decoration faithfully.
In her essay for the Schwarz Porzellan exhibition catalogue, Selma Schwartz noted that Sèvres primarily derived decorative elements from 18th century Cantonese lacquer rather than 17th century Japanese lacquer.
The majority of lacquer style pieces are a mixture of fanciful European chinoiseries and influences from China and Japan.
Schwartz observed that the decoration of black-ground pieces can be divided into roughly three groups; 'those after engravings by Pillement, those that seem to be inspired by Cantonese lacquer or Chinese woodcuts, and those (the majority) that cannot be related to any single source and are often a comical depiction of generic chinoiseries'.
The gilt double-canopies fringed with bells on the lower parts of these vases bear a resemblance to those found in Pillement's 'The Ladies Amusement', printed in London in 1762 and other engravings, but if these engravings did inspire Didier it seems that they served to spark his imagination rather than provide a prototype to copy.

In spite of the vogue for lacquer throughout the 18th century, a taste which never waned but was more intense at times than at others, it was not until about 1790 that Sèvres began making vases and other objects with black grounds decorated in gold and platinum.
The first attempts of lacquer-style decoration using gold and silver on a black ground were soon abandoned after October 1781, primarily because silver did not lend itself well for this purpose.
Silver soon oxidized, going black, leaving it almost invisible against the black ground. Consequently, during the 1780s, red and brown grounds with lacquer-style decoration in silver and gold were mainly used instead. It was the introduction of platinum which revolutionised decorative possibilities, as it achieved 'silver' decoration on a black ground with permanence.
(...)

* La suite est à lire, ici : Christie's - The Exceptional Sale (2013)

Splendides. Le pot-pourri monter en bronze rocaille est exceptionnel.
Ces dernières pièces ont un faux air de décors anglais des Frères Adams !

La nuit, la neige a écrit:

C'est si ravissant

Lucius a écrit:
Ces dernières pièces ont un faux air de décors anglais des Frères Adams !

La paire de vases aux dragons, " fonds noirs ", ont été acquis en 1815 par le roi George IV d'Angleterre, grand amateur de chinoiseries.
Ils furent un temps disposés dans l'extravagant et extraordinaire Pavillon royal de Brighton, ce qui ne m'étonne pas !!

...  c'est vrai ! 

La nuit, la neige a écrit:Ce service à fond noir était composé de 71 pièces dont 21 assiettes et mélangeait des pièces à fond entièrement noir et d’autres à fleurs émaillées sur le fond blanc.

Je préfère ces dernières, allégées par un peu de fond blanc,  à celles à fond noir plein .  C'est tout de même bien sombre.   Et, à vrai dire,  je ne crains pas trop l'excentricité des vases à dragons ! ...  un petit grain de folie de temps en temps ... mais il faut l'intérieur adéquat . 
Quelle casse dans le service Youssoupov !!!  ( scènes de ménages ?  ou bien distribution de cadeaux ? )

Merci LNLN pour ce splendide et passionnant sujet 🤩

Je me permets d’ajouter ces exemples de porcelaines chinoises « noir-miroir » exposés à la Porzellansammlung de Dresde :







Clichés personnels

Merci pour le reportage.

Il faut savoir que le noir a été assez difficile à obtenir sur la porcelaine. Ces porcelaines à l'imitation du laque sont donc une prouesse technique.

La royal collection conserve des pièces exceptionnelles. Les plus spectaculaires sont celles ornées de bronzes, notamment celles-ci avec leurs petits dragons, j'adore :