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MINTON & CO, PAIR OF QUEEN'S VASES, C. 1862
by:
Christopher Menz
Among the notable productions of the Minton concern during the second half of the nineteenth century were its fine copies of French eighteenth century porcelain produced by the Manufacture royale de Porcelaine de S￨vres. In its quest to achieve technical and artistic perfection in a range of ceramic bodies, Minton produced faithful copies of celebrated S￨vres models. Much admired during the eighteenth century, S￨vres became increasingly popular in Britain during the early nineteenth century when George IV, a leader of fashionable taste, voraciously collected French decorative arts of the eighteenth century, including vast quantities of S￨vres. He took advantage of the flood of top quality French decorative arts, much of it originally from royal collections, which came onto the market in the decades after the Revolution. In particular, it was the rococo S￨vres of the mid eighteenth century that was prized and which played a large part in the British rococo revival of the early nineteenth century, a style which reached its apogee by mid century.
The original S￨vres model for the vase pot pourri gondole first appeared in 1756 and remained in production until 1761. Prices ranges from 960 livres to 1,200 livres, indicating it was an item of great luxury. Examples of the vase are in the Hermitage Collection (green palette), the Philadelphia Museum of Art (green palette), the British Royal Collection (pink palette) and the Wallace Collection (green palette). The vase in the Wallace Collection forms part of a garniture with two elephant-head candle vases.
The specific model for the Minton version was the pink S￨vres pot pourri gondole, dated 175758, in the British Royal Collection. George IV acquired it in 1809. Queen Victoria lent the vase to an exhibition in Manchester in 1857, Art treasures of the United Kingdom, and to an exhibition at the London South Kensington Museum in 1862, Exhibition of works of art of the Medieval, Renaissance and more recent periods (no. 1277). Following the 1862 exhibition, copies of the vase were made by Minton and the rival firm Coalport. Minton named their vase Oval Queens vase and it was shape number 622 in their catalogue. Allowing for kiln fluctuations, the size of the Minton copy is nearly identical to the S￨vres original. Minton exhibited their Queens vases at the Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876.
The Queens vases are pot-pourri vases in the rococo style of oval gondola form with pierced covers. They sit on scroll bases. The intense turquoise and lavish gilding demonstrate clearly the level of technical skills mastered at Minton in the early 1860s. The amorous pastoral scenes painted on the body of the vases are in the style of Boucher, the celebrated French court artist of the eighteenth century. Interestingly, Minton produced the vase in turquoisenot the original pinkand, probably in deference to mid nineteenth century sensibilities, chose to illustrate scenes in which the figures are clothed, rather than nude.
The pair of Queens vases is currently on display at the National Gallery of Victoria: International. |
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