Fergus Gambon
Director
Lot 380
The Bath: An important Minton Pâte-sur-Pâte vase by Louis Solon, circa 1895
20 November 2019, 10:30 GMT
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £50,062.50 inc. premium
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Anna Burnside
Head of Sale
The Bath: An important Minton Pâte-sur-Pâte vase by Louis Solon, circa 1895
Decorated with a continuous scene of four naked ladies frolicking in a swirling pool, one playfully splashing the surface of the water as another swims towards her, another diving, the last reaching up to touch leaves of the raised gold branches that form a band just below the rim, signed 'L Solon', on a peacock blue ground, 25.5cm high, globe mark in gold, impressed mark, indistinct numerals in white
Footnotes
Provenance
Herbert Minton Robinson (1853-1923), director of Minton circa 1883-1923
Thence by family descent to the present owner
This vase is listed in the written records of Solon's work in the Minton archive as 'The Bath' and is described in an entry dated 2 May 1895 as 'Female Figures Bathing'. It was made in November 1894 and it took Solon fourteen days to complete the work. The sale price was £75. The pâte-sur-pâte technique is well-suited to creating the continuous watery landscape seen here but surprisingly only a very small number of examples by Solon are recorded. A smaller vase with closely related decoration titled 'Cupids Bathing' was completed in January 1895, taking only six days to finish, and was also recorded in the factory records on 2 May 1895. The 'Cupids Bathing' vase was sold by Bonhams, Masterpieces of Minton, on 5 October 2004, lot 47. See also the pair of Minton 'Vases Baigneuses' by Solon made in 1888, sold by Christie's in New York on 17 October 2012, lot 533.
