Beschreibung:

Pair of Chelsea Porcelain Mazarine-Blue Ground Fruit and Flower Encrusted Two-Handled Vases Circa 1760, unmarked Each of lobed baluster form, the banded neck flanked by gilt rocaille-molded scroll handles applied with fruit, mixed berries and flowers, the sides richly gilt and hand-tooled with either vignettes after Watteau of musical 18th century companions or with exotic birds perched among flowering and fruiting trees, the lobed neck with scale pattern, trellis and diaper, the foot molded and enriched with gilt acanthus. Height 16 3/4 inches. Provenance: Phillips, London, 8 March 1995, . Anonymous sale, Neales, Nottingham, 23 May 1996, (cover illustration) With Klaber & Klaber Antiques, London. Exhibited: Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC, October 2004 - January 2021. Exhibition Literature: Grosvenor House Fair, 1995. Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC, 'Portals to the Past: British Ceramics 1675-1825, presented by the Delhom Service League', 2016-2021. The present pair of vases are two of the five known surviving examples. The deep cobalt-blue unglazed color 'mazarine blue' first appeared at the Chelsea manufactory in 1756, and was likely a response to the bleu lapis ground introduced at Vincennes in 1751. For a pea-green example of this form, see J.V.G. Mallet, 'A Painting of Nicholas Sprimont His Family and His Chelsea Vases', Les Cahiers de Mariemont, Hommage a Mireille Jottrand , Vol. 24/24, 1993/1994, p. 85, fig. 7. Also observe the undecorated biscuit form illustrated in the lower right corner of the Sprimont portrait, offered in the current sale as . C Estate of Sarah Belk Gambrell
Gilding worn, most noticeably to the center of each Watteau vignette, restoration to approximately three lobes on the rims of both vases, the restoration now scratched and slightly discolored, typical chips to flowers and foliage with some overpainting, chips to footrims largely not noticeable when placed, multiple firing cracks issuing from the underside, blending with the mottled glaze on each side, glaze lines and very minor hairline to each handle frond.