Ref.10647
Albert DAMMOUSE and MANUFACTURE DE SEVRES - Important antique exhibition vase, "vase potiche allongée" model, with ibis on its golden wooden pedestal

This important antique vase with an ibis on its golden wooden pedestal was made by the renowned French ceramist Albert Dammouse in 1873. There is the Manufacture de Sèvres’s seal. This vase is both emblematic of the period’s decorative arts and of Albert Dammouse’s works who was known for his dexterity in the material treatment as well as his qualities as decorator. Albert Dammouse, whose father was sculptor at the Manufacture de Sèvres, joins the École nationale des Arts décoratifs in 1863 before study from 1868 Milès Solon’s lessons, also decorator at the Manufacture de Sèvres, at the School of Fine Arts. In 1871, he moved to his own workshop in the city of Sèvres, next to the Manufacture, until his death in 1926. Albert Dammouse is interested in all the ceramics, but his porcelains have made first his reputation. In 1874, at the Union centrale des Arts Décoratifs, he exhibits porcelains and gets the gold medal. He won then a gold medal at the third Paris World’s Fair in 1878 and built ovens and workshops in Sèvres in order to produce more works. Although Dammouse has his own workshop some of his works, such as our vase, are the result of collaboration between Dammouse and the Manufacture de Sèvres. This is the model "elongated ovoid porcelaine vase" invented by Jules Peyre and used by many artists with sometimes some variations such as this Chinese Vase No. 1 entitled "Pécher", made around 1860 and decorated by Marc Emmanuel Louis Solon. Renowned throughout Europe, the Sèvres factory, where this vase was decorated, remains at the end of the century renowed for its technical and artistic savoir-faire even if industrialisation was growing.Notably, thanks to the discovery, in 1768, of the first kaolin field in France by Pierre-Joseph Macquer and Robert Millot, two researchers at the Manufacture de Sèvres, hard-paste porcelain (made up of nearly 75% of kaolin), whose manufacturing secret was kept by Saxony, is finally developed in France. With this discovery, the Manufacture de Sèvres is developing, particularly from the beginning of the 19th century. The productions are characterized by their modernity and the diversity of styles. While the pedestal is representative of the 19th century richness of ornamentation and eclectic revival of historic styles, the vase is characterized by a certain lightness and purity, aesthetic appeared with Japonism. Nature is one of the favorite themes of Japanese art, and the vase is decorated with an ibis and a shrub around wich birds are flying. Indeed, Japonism, which inspires Europeans arts in the second half of the century, is one of the principal inspiration in Dammouse’s works. With the various exchanges that took place between France and Japan from 1858, the year of the signing of a commercial treaty, and the contribution of the World's Fairs, true international encounters, the West discovers the Japanese art that provides to the artists some new patterns and a new and refine aesthetic. In 1873, year of the creation of this vase, takes place the first Japanese exhibition in Paris. The art dealer Siegfried Bing opens the store "Art Nouveau", rue de Provence, around 1872 and where Dammouse will be exposed. Later, Albert Dammouse, who was inspired especially by flora, will be one of the first, concerning ceramic, to create Art Nouveau style works of art . This vase, with its decorative and sophisticated look, belongs to the trends of its time. In the same vein, Ferdinand Mérigot is at the origin of the Japanese decoration that adorns this pair of vases made in 1868 and whose model is also Chinese Vase No. 1, variant of our form. The pedestal in golden wood, inspired by Napoléon III style, is ornated with rococo bows and acanthus leaves. This very elaborate pedestal was specially created to highlight the porcelain. The vase does not have a bottom: the bottom is pierced, and thanks to a system it is possible to fit the vase to the base. Thus deprived of any practical function but destined primarily to the decor, it seems certain that this vase participated in an exhibition. Although Dammouse was one of the artistes of the great trends of his time, Roger Marx, in his Paris World's Fair’s report in 1900, wrote with relevance : « no material that he treated with a sovereign skill, no trend that made him lose the notion of composed decor », qualities by which he was renowed. « Dammouse is a skilled ceramist, but is above all an artist », wrote the critic Georges Vogt in his Paris World's Fair’s report in 1900.

Ref.11440
Edouard LIEVRE (1828-1886) - A center table with fantastical masks

This center table was designed around 1878 by Édouard Lièvre . Predominant artist of the Japonism in France, Édouard Lièvre experienced two successive professional lives: first as an illustrator, then as an ornamental designer and cabinetmaker, during which time he produced pieces of furniture in a neo-Renaissance style as well as in the Japanese style. Coming from a modest family in eastern France, he began working very early in a lithographic printing house in Nancy before drawing decorative objects for a foundry in the Meuse region. Then he moved to Paris, where he attended the studio of the painter, engraver and lithographer Théodore Valerio. After a trip to Brussels in 1847, he entered the studio of Thomas Couture, academic painter, and he will realize, in watercolor, a copy of the Romans of decadence, noticed by the critic Paul Mantz during the Salon of 1847. Following the donation to the Louvre Museum of the Charles Sauvageot collection, he was commissioned to publish a selection of works: the two volumes appeared in 1863 under the title "Musée impérial du Louvre : Collection Sauvageot dessinée et gravée à l’eau-forte par Édouard Lièvre". He then began "Les Collections célèbres d’œuvres d’art dessinées et gravées d’après les originaux par Édouard Lièvre", which was published in 1866. In 1870, Alfred Darcel, curator of the Louvre's art objects, wrote the introduction of his new book: "Les Arts décoratifs à toutes les époques". Édouard Lièvre worked for various amateurs as well as for works of art editors for which he drew decorative art models. After his death, the two sales (in 1887 and 1890) during which his possessions were dispersed, were a resounding success thanks to the press. This beautiful center table perfectly illustrates the artist mastery and his taste for luxurious materials. He chose rosewood for this piece, rare and precious exotic wood, whose dark color enhances the brilliance of gilded bronze ornaments. Warm tones and purple veining bring nobility and character to the furniture. The legs curved shape is counterbalanced by the straightness of the H stretcher and the apron, thus mixing grace and sobriety. The care given to the details is characteristic of Edouard Lièvre's production who seems to "embroider" the wood by producing openworked patterns with extreme precision. Those which adorn the apron of our table are delicately performed. They link the differents parts of the table by inserting the apron through an elegant stylized flower while extending to the curved corners formed by the legs. These openworked decorations are ornated with arabesques, scrolls and stylized plant elements. They are quite representative of the syncretic aspect of Lièvre’s works which mixes different sources of Western and Eastern inspiration. One can observe the same kind of motifs in Gabriel Viardot’s works, another predominant figure of Japonisme in France, who adorns his furniture with a "lace" of carved wood made in the same spirit, despite some formal differences (of which a more geometric aspect). The apron of our table is adorned with a gilded bronze symbol evoking the shou ideogram, synonymous with longevity. This one is also noticeable on a jardiniere made by Édouard Lièvre for Ferdinand Barbedienne, witness of the vogue for a fantasized Orient and reconstituted through composite elements adapted to Western culture. The tops of the legs are adorned with fantastic masks which are specific to this table model and of which an identical copy is preserved in the Orsay Museum in Paris. These masks represent a creature that could be a lion or an oriental dragon forming a fall decorated with plant scrolls and covering the curve of the leg. The same ornaments are present on the gilded bronzes feet. Gilded bronze cartouches are inserted at regular intervals on the stretcher. The latter is decorated, in its center, with a gilded bronze grooved ball featuring foliages. All these bronze elements are in their original condition, covered with an old gold patina and not re-gilded. A beautiful marble slab is insetted in the table top and framed by a moldered rosewood bordure. This "Brocatelle" marble takes its name from a fabric which name comes from the Italian word broccato, technique of fabric manufacture by the "broaching" process. Particularly fragile and difficult to carve, it is still very popular for its decorative value. It is more specifically a "Spanish Brocatelle" because of its extraction site which is in the Pyrenees. The quality and the beautiful tones of this marble (pale pink jasped with yellow, white and gray) contribute to consider this table as a masterpiece. To date, we know only five tables on the same model and each of them has a different marble top. The one preserved at the Orsay Museum and mentioned above includes a Violet Breccia marble top. The other tables listed (perfectly identical, with the exception of the marble top) are kept in private collections and show other types of marble such as Campan or Sarrancolin. The after death inventory of Édouard Lièvre mentions one of these tables with a marble top made out of Aleppo Breccia

Ref.11269
Splendid Statuary Carrara marble statue representing « Armida's dream » by Amand-Désiré-Honoré Barré, World's Fair of 1878

This sumptuous monumental statue was made by the French sculptor Amand-Désiré-Honoré Barré in Statuary Carrara marble to be exhibited at the Salon of 1875 in Paris. In 1878, this statue was selected to represent French sculpture at the Universal Exhibition. This sculpture represents Armida's dream, an episode inspired by the epic poem written by Torquato Tasso, a 16th-century Italian poet, entitled Jerusalem Delivered. This poem is a fictional narrative of the first Crusade (1096 - 1099) which narrates in particular the story of Armida, an enchanting young Saracen, daughter of the King of Damascus, and Rinaldo, a young Christian knight. The sculptor signs discreetly under the shield: "am. Barré". Amand-Désiré-Honoré Barré, a sculptor born in the Orne region in France and a student of Victor-Edmond Leharivel-Durocher, was active in Paris in the 1860s and 1870s. At the Salon of 1873 taking place at the Palais des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Amand Barré exposes, at no. 1507, a plaster of a statue called Le Rêve d'Armide. For the same year, the french National Archives keeps a document concerning an application for a marble block or a workshop, which is probably done since the marble statue of Armida's dream is exhibited at the Salon of 1875. The book Les Beaux-Arts à l’Exposition Universelle de 1878 written by Duval mentions "No. 1082, Armida’s dream, voluptuous study largely treated by Mr. Barré". An old photograph of the Fine Arts Gallery of the 1878 Universal Exhibition that we were able to find reveals a large part of this sculpture in the Trocadero Palace. Not located since then, this masterpiece of sculpture is now rediscovered and its retraced history is a major event

Ref.15606
BALLEROY & Co. (porcelain), Joseph Albert PONSIN (painter), Pair of Decorative Plates Adorned with Portraits of an Assyrian Man and Woman, 1876?

This Pair of Ornamental Porcelain Dishes Was Crafted by the Company Balleroy & Cie in Limoges and Decorated by Joseph Albert Ponsin, Likely in 1876 Both dishes bear the mark of the company Balleroy & Cie. In 1900, brothers Antoine and Henri Balleroy acquired a factory in Limoges. Their partnership with Léon Mandavy and Paul Grenouillet de Mavaleix four years later resulted in the formation of the company “Balleroy & Cie”. The Balleroy brothers continued the business independently from 1908 onward, and Henri Balleroy eventually assumed sole leadership in 1929, managing the enterprise until its closure in 1937. The works are signed by Joseph Albert Ponsin (1842-1899), a former actor and songwriter who became one of the most renowned stained-glass painters of the late 19th century. Awarded a bronze medal at the 1889 World Fair, Ponsin also designed a “luminous palace” made of several thousand molded glass pieces for the 1900 Paris Exhibition. His use of porcelain is highly unusual within his work. The decorations on the two dishes are complementary, both in their chromatic harmony and in the selection and poses of the figures. The male figure’s profile exudes a certain severity, despite his slightly smiling lips. His long hair is matched by a similarly full beard. He wears an earring, and his opulent tunic combines gold and green. The female figure, in contrast, stands out against a blue background. Her attire is distinctly oriental: her gown is trimmed with gold, and her long black hair is adorned with a veil, secured on each side by two serpents and a wide golden band. In front of her is a white bird with a long yellow beak, which wraps its neck around one of its wings. Beneath the artist’s signature, the inscription “1[8?]76” provides an approximate date for the creation of these works. The portrait of the man bears a resemblance to the Dish with Assyrian Design by Théodore Deck and Albert Anker, housed in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Both Anker and Ponsin appear to have drawn inspiration from the same source: Sir Henry Layard’s publication, The Monuments of Nineveh from Drawings Made on the Spot Illustrated in 100 Plates (London, 1849). In Ponsin’s work, the male figure’s profile closely mirrors those in Layard’s book, though he took greater liberties than Anker in his interpretation of the character’s headdress.