Mounted Porcelain Potpourri With Painted Decoration Of Pastorales Galantes. Circa 1880

Lovely covered bowl on pedestal forming Pot-Pourri or Bonbonnière in porcelain with a base called Beau Bleu de Sèvres enhanced with stripes, palmettes, volutes, crosses and stylized acanthus fleurons, pearls painted in fine gold. In Rocaille finery, these ornamental motifs enclose oblong cartouches with pleasantly touched polychrome decoration of exquisite Pastorales Galantes reproducing two of the famous pictorial compositions of François Boucher (1715-1770) now preserved in Paris at the Louvre Museum (Inv. 2725-2726): The Shepherd's Presents or The Nest (1730) and its counterpart The Charms of Country Life (1740). Treated "naturally", cheerful scatterings of wild flowers in bright colors adorn the interior with a white enameled background of the receptacle. Beautifully chiseled petals, pearl ribbon rush, openwork acanthus palmettes, brettes, leafy corolla, heart-shaped stripes encircle in friezes the body, the pedestal of the porcelain piece raised on a circular base with a notched profile. Equipped with fixed lateral handles with leafy acanthus scrolls, it is topped with a pine cone fretel. In a Galant mode: Endowed with many coquettish finery, this ravishing porcelain piece used as a Pot-Pourri or Bonbonnière revisits in these small painted tableaux "the graces and charms" of the Gallantry of love of which François Boucher (1715-1770) was inveterate bard in his century. Inspired by the sentimental eclogues staged by his friend Simon Favart (1710-1795) in one of his most famous pantomimes entitled "Les Vendanges de Tempè" or "La Vallée de Montmorency" (1745), the complacent Pastoureaux, the idle Shepherdesses, all ribboned in velvet, taffeta, embroidered silk, flirting ingenuously against the backdrop of idyllic bowers by the favorite painter of the Court of Louis XV, never ceased to be featured in the pieces of furniture (in Vernis Martin) or decorative objects (porcelain, biscuits, etc.) produced during the 19th century (1850-1890). And this, to the great displeasure of a Parisian clientele still as enamored of these seductive pictorial subjects where sentimentality rubs shoulders with lightness and bawdiness. An exquisite decorative piece that will add a touch of elegant preciousness to any interior. Beautiful Neo-Louis XV/Louis XVI porcelain work from the last third of the 19th century. Signed in the painted decoration. Materials: gilt bronze; hard porcelain with a Bleu de Four and white background; polychrome painted decoration; fine gold. Dimensions: H: 16.cm; - Width with handles: 20 cm. Perfect condition