Style Napoleon III / Ref.16178

Sèvres Manufactory, Pair of Rhodes vases commissioned by the Household of Emperor Napoleon III

The Rhodes-form vases were produced by the Manufacture de Sèvres during the 1860s and 1870s. After the sobriety of the Louis-Philippe regime, which had abolished the services d'honneur, Napoleon III restored the pomp of former times and founded in 1852 the Ministry of the Emperor's Household, modelled on the First Empire. Among other duties, this ministry was responsible for the administration of the Crown endowment, the Emperor's private domain, and the encouragement of the arts. Marshal of France Jean-Baptiste Philibert Vaillant was appointed Minister of the Emperor's Household in 1860 and remained in the post until the fall of the Empire. Housed in the Palais du Louvre close to the sovereign, he was appointed Minister of Fine Arts in 1863.

It was he who presided over the commission placed with the Manufacture de Sèvres in the Emperor's name in 1866, the commission from which our two vases originate.

These Rhodes vases are recorded in the manufactory's sales warehouse register under the date of 30 April 1867. The gilding and the mounts are the work of Émile-Bernard Réjoux, while the figures are by the hand of the painter Jules-Eugène Humbert.

In the Sales and Commissions Ledger dated June 1869, the description of a pair of Rhodes vases on a "yellow ground, gold decoration, figures of children, foliage" makes it possible to identify our pieces. Furthermore, they are listed under the heading "Delivered to the General Secretariat of the Emperor's Household". This heading specifies that the vases were intended "to be offered as a gift in the name of His Majesty the Emperor".

Although identical in form, these vases display two different decorative schemes. The first depicts two Cupids among branches. Symbolising the nets in which love snares souls, one of them holds ribbons around which birds flutter, some of which are caught in the trap. On the reverse, a putto advances through lush vegetation in which daisies, cornflowers and bellflowers can be recognised. The second vase features on each face a trophy decoration from which birds escape: one is composed of a hunting horn, a lance and a quiver, adorned with pine cones, roses and branches; the other comprises a bow, a quiver, a Pan flute and scrolling foliage.

Rhodes vases are held in French public collections and display some variations in the ornamentation of the neck. Our pair is of the same design as the one held at the Musée d'Orsay (inv. GML 5293 1 and GML 5293 2): a narrow neck decorated with gadroon motifs, a female head in applied relief supporting volutes joined by acanthus leaves in a symmetrical arrangement.

The initiative behind the production of this pair of vases confers from the outset a high importance upon these masterpieces of French porcelain. Intended to be offered by the sovereign, these pieces attest to the technical and artistic prowess of the artists of the Manufacture de Sèvres. The form, inspired by antiquity, may be compared with the so-called "Panathenaic" amphorae in the Louvre (inv. MN 704 and MN 705), which were designed to contain the olive oil offered as a reward to the victors of the eponymous games.

The reference to antiquity (Pan flute, appliqués simulating caryatids, gadroon motifs, etc.), the abundant vegetation in which the Cupids and wild birds move, are characteristic of the sumptuous and historicising taste of the Second Empire. Beneath the base, the vases are signed "S 66" and bear the imperial "N" underlined with the date "67" in red print.