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A very large Paris porcelain vase, signed and dated 1839 image 1
A very large Paris porcelain vase, signed and dated 1839 image 2
A very large Paris porcelain vase, signed and dated 1839 image 3
A very large Paris porcelain vase, signed and dated 1839 image 4
A very large Paris porcelain vase, signed and dated 1839 image 5
A very large Paris porcelain vase, signed and dated 1839 image 6
A very large Paris porcelain vase, signed and dated 1839 image 7
Lot 139

A very large Paris porcelain vase, signed and dated 1839

3 July 2025, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

£40,000 - £60,000

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A very large Paris porcelain vase, signed and dated 1839

Of ovoid shape, the flared neck with gilt rim decorated with a polychrome arabesque frieze on a brown ground, the body decorated on one side with a painting after Louis Léopold Robert's The Pilgrimage of the Madonna of the Arch (1827) within a rectangular gilt border, signed by the female painter Aimée Lachassaigne and dated 1839 in the bottom right-hand corner, the reverse painted with a still life of fruits and flowers within an oval gilt border, the gilt handles in the shape of putti holding up baskets of fruit with relief-moulded acanthus leaf terminals, the lower body with a low-relief continuous grape-vine frieze above raised gilt acanthus leaves, supported by a gadrooned gilt-ground socle resting on a podium decorated on opposing sides with a foliate swag supporting a lyre flanked by two seated gryphons and a painted scene depicting on one side Demeter seated in a field of hay with scythe in hand, and on the reverse a still life of fruit and flowers, 126.5cm high, spurious Russian porcelain mark to the neck of the vase, signed and dated in the main panel

Footnotes

The Lachassaigne family of porcelain painters

Aimée Lachassaigne was a member of a larger family of, by all accounts, very successful porcelain decorators. Several members have been recorded throughout the late 18th and 19th century in various locations in north-east Paris, near the Rue de Brétagne. The earliest listed painter is Louis-Ferdinand Lachassaigne (b.1790) who worked as a painter at Sèvres around 1826/27 (see T. Préaud, Sèvres, des Origines à nos Jours, 1978, p.370). Other porcelain painters with the same family name were exhibiting at the international fairs, and in a record of the Paris Exposition of 1849, a Lachassa(i)gne is noted as a painter of "[...]Vases ... of excellent quality, especially in the rendering of figures and their lifelike flesh tones[...] (see X. Chavagnac-Grollier, Histoire des manufactures françaises de porcelaines, vol. II, 1906, p. 848).

Régine de Plinval de Guillebon lists Alexandre Lachassaigne as the proprietor of a warehouse for the various provincial factories, based in the Rue Meslay (Paris Porcelain 1770-1850, 1972, p.337). Aimée Lachassaigne herself is mentioned in Bellier-Auvray, Dictionnaire général des artistes de l'école française depuis l'origine des arts du dessin jusqu'en 1882, 1882, pp. 70 and 863 as "Mlle A. Lachassaigne, peintre." and took part in the Paris Salons of 1834 with Le Luth, after Colin and Les Adieux, a work in enamel after Desmoulins, and again in 1835 with Une Marée d'Equinoxe after Beaume.

Iconography of the Pilgrimage of the Madonna of the Arch

The image depicted on this remarkable vase is inextricably linked to Neapolitan culture, and this vase is a testament to the ongoing mutual influence between the French and Neapolitan realms, well after the defeat of Napoleonic rule in Naples after the defeat of Joachim Murat in 1815. Under Murat, the royal porcelain factory of Ferdinand IV, King of Naples and the two Sicilies, was duly closed. It was decreed that only French porcelain could be imported into Naples, either decorated in France, or by a small group of Italian painters, of whom Raffaele Giovine is perhaps the most well known. The Pilgrimage of the Madonna of the Arch refers to the annual pilgrimage to the Santuario della Madonna dell'Arco (Sanctuary of the Madonna of the Arch) in Sant'Anastasia, near Naples, in Italy. It is depicted numerous times on both Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea wares, and also on Poulard Prad porcelain pieces.

From 1832 to 1836 the Royal Palace in Naples was the official residence of the youngest daughter of King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia and Archduchess Maria Teresa of Austria-Este, Maria Cristina of Savoy, who was the wife and queen consort of King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies. In 1837, following a fire that broke out in the rooms of the Queen Mother, a new restoration of the entire complex was undertaken. King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies enlisted the collaboration of Gaetano Genovese for these works, which included entirely newly designed furnishings. During these works, the private apartments were moved to the second floor, while the rooms on the main floor were repurposed for representational use, and included a series of large and impressive vases decorated with scenes after famous Old Master paintings, popular scenes from History, and key moments in State history. These extraordinary vases were made most likely in Limoges, and decorated by Raffaele Giovine, several of them dated to the 1840s (see A. Caròla-Perrotti, Le Porcellane napoletane dell'Ottocento, 1807-1860, 1990, nos. 285-292).

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