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CREIL-MONTEREAU Manufacture - Beautiful antique planter with faux cloisonné flowers decor and base made out of gilded bronze and patinated bronze with elephant heads decor

This beautiful planter was made out of enameled faience by the famous Creil-Montereau Manufacture in the Oise Department of France, ca. 1880. The feet shaped like elephant heads and the base imitating the texture of bamboo with gilt bronze show the influence of Oriental art on French artists during the second half of the 19th century. The planter’s body features a magnificent decoration of peonies and fans on a Turquoise-blue background. The painter imitated the cloisonné enamels technique by painting on gold-colored cracks. The factory’s stamp proves the origin of this object and the floral décor resembles the Flora motif that was one of the Creil manufacture’s most successful creations, exhibited at the World’s Fair of 1855 in Paris.

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Fernand THESMAR, Ceramic gardener with applied enamel flowers decoration

This important gardener bears the monogram of the enameler André-Fernand Thesmar (1843-1912), and was made in the beginning of his enemaler career when he discovers the enamel work and starts his first tries in the 1870's. Andre-Fernand Thesmar first devoted himself to oil painting and was known as a painter of flowers. He was educated in drawing in a factory for printed-fabric in Mulhouse where he had been placed at fourteen years old to learn the trade of a draftsman. His teacher was a painter of flowers: he “drew and dissected the plant with fury, requiring an anatomical analysis of shapes and a meticulous copy of nature.” He left this industrial environment to go to Paris in 1860 and engaged in various activities. It was probably for his talent as a painter that Thesmar was noticed in 1872 by Ferdinand Barbedienne. With Barbedienne, later Thesmar succeeded to the management of the production of enamels. The productions of Thesmar and Barbedienne reflected the interest that they had for the decorative techniques and compositions of Japanese enamel. It was as “co-operator of the Barbedienne company” that Thesmar exhibited at the Exhibition of Decorative Arts in 1874, A cock pheasant from China. At the exposition in 1875, Thesmar exhibited two large enamel compositions on copper. In 1891, Thesmar turned to the decoration of porcelain and introduced himself to Charles Lauth who, since 1879, led the Factory de Sèvres. Its at this time that the collaboration with the Barbedienne company ended. Afterwards, he would be especially known for having invented the “plique à jour” technique, which numerous pieces of are kept in public collections. He creates here a very beautiful gardener with a brown background on which is detaching a floral decoration, favorite theme of the artist, in light relief with applied enamel. His study of the botany allows him to create decor of which the flower speciment are easily recognizable. For instance, we can identify here on one face yellow bindweed as flowered rosemary. On the ohter side he depicts holly. Finally on the whole a rain of aquilegias put randomly on the surface.

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A rare piece by Emile GALLÉ, moon and landscape fantasy after Joseph Vernet

This rare piece by Émile Gallé, bearing his signature, is a creation from the years 1863-1877. The interior is decorated with a landscape scene inspired by a painting by Joseph Vernet, Le Rocher percé, disseminated through engraving. The shape of the dish is original. In relief, the rim of the circular dish takes up the motif of a crescent moon, symbolized by a face. This is a pareidolia (optical illusion), or the propensity to see an identifiable shape in a natural element (in the clouds, on the illuminated surface of the moon, in a rock, etc.). This iconography has ancient roots, with mythological stories readily associating the moon with a male character. The creation of this lunar frame model comes from Gengoult Prouvé, who worked for Emile Gallé's father, at the head of the family glassmaking business that his son developed in the 1870s. A study drawing by Gallé representing the same lunar-shaped piece with a different decoration is in the Musée d'Orsay, in Paris. This model was also used to create blown, molded and wheel-engraved glass ashtrays, called Clair de lune. Finally, the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris keeps an identical work, representing Pierrot and Columbine, known under the title La Lune rousse.

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Albert-Ernest CARRIER-BELLEUSE, CHOISY-LE-ROI Manufacture, Bust of an Oriental Woman in glazed earthenware

This bust was created by Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse for the Choisy-le-Roi faience factory in the second half of the 19th century. Albert-Ernest Carrier de Belleuse, known as Carrier-Belleuse (1824-1887), was the most prolific sculptor of the Second Empire. He was quickly influenced by the importance of decorative arts and worked with Ferdinand Barbedienne on the creation of decorative objects. He achieved great success at exhibitions and received numerous official commissions. He produced many busts of beautiful and elegant young women, including a Bust of a Woman Wearing a Diadem held at the Orsay Museum. He also provided bust models for the Choisy-le-Roi Faience Factory, where his son later became the artistic director. This bust of an oriental woman, created from an original sculpture signed by Carrier-Belleuse, was made for this manufactory. Titled The Bust of an Algerian Woman, it was auctioned at Sotheby’s in 2017. It is one of his rare orientalist works. The desire to depict a woman in oriental costume aligns with the idealization evident throughout the sculptor's work. The smiling woman shows her teeth. Her long, loose hair, adorned with multiple sequins along the edges, rests on her shoulder and is topped with a hat featuring orientalist motifs. Her bare chest, partially covered by a crumpled fabric and accentuated by the two rows of her necklace, exudes great sensuality. The colorful costume draping her shoulders is highlighted by the vivid colors and brilliance of the faience. At the base of the bust, a gilded belt emphasizes the richness of the costume. The bust is signed on the back and bears the mark of the Choisy-le-Roi manufactory.