Spindle-shaped Vase With Painted Decoration - Parisian Porcelain - Empire

Vase, richly painted and gilded
Hard porcelain painted and enhanced with gilding
H. 25.5 x l. 8 (cm.)
Paris, circa 1810

The body of this spindle-shaped vase, very fashionable at the beginning of the 19th century, reveals on both sides a polychromy used on neoclassical motifs and enhanced with burnished gilding. The handles, decorated with flowers and palmettes, are enlivened by touches of gilding. The whole rests on a gilded porcelain base.

Hard porcelain in Paris at the beginning of the 19th century
Unlike earthenware, porcelain factories were very flourishing under the Empire, especially in Paris. The period 1800-1820 can be considered the golden age of porcelain in Paris. Nineteen factories already existed in Paris in 1800 but only seven of them were founded under the Old Regime: Dihl and Guérard, Houzel, Lemaire and Josse, Pouyat and Russinger, Schoelcher, Despréz and Nast. Unlike the period of the last twenty years of the 18th century, marked by the transition from rockery to antique simplicity, the first thirty years of the 19th century saw the opposite, evolving from antique sobriety to rococo. Our vase, with its simple and elegant shape, the decoration in royal blue, pink and carmine shades testifies to the virtuosity of artisans in Paris at the beginning of the 19th century. The richness of the gilding highlights also shows that this is a real quality piece.

Condition report
Very good condition, no cracks, great freshness of the gilding.

Literature
Régine de Plinval de Guillebon, earthenware and porcelain from Paris 18th 19th centuries, Faton edition, 1995