Sèvres - Bottle Bucket With Cabbage Leaf Decor - Eighteenth Century - Mounted By Henry Dasson

Cylindrical bottle bucket with a "cabbage leaf" decoration, detached bouquets, blue and gold nets and combs. It is provided with two rolling handles decorated with blue and gold combs, blue and gold threads on the upper edge and the base, soft-paste Sèvres porcelain, Brand with two intertwined L, letter-date MM for the year 1789 painter's brands not identified. Transformed into a cache pot a hundred years later, this bucket was embellished with a rocaille mount in gilded bronze signed Henry Dasson 1887

A bottle bucket is used in beverage services to keep bottles of wine cool thanks to crushed ice . The shape of this "ordinary" bottle bucket was created at the Vincennes factory by Jean-Claude Duplessis (died in 1774) in the early 1750s. This shape had lasting success in Sèvres and remained in use until the years 1790. Sèvres porcelain comes from one of the most important factories in Europe. Founded in 1740, it remains world famous today.

The Sèvres factory was developed thanks to the patronage of Louis XV under the influence of Madame de Pompadour. Originally located in Vincennes and then moved to Sèvres in 1756, it produced so-called soft porcelain then hard porcelain following the discovery of a Kaolin deposit near Limoges and marketed in 1770. Over the political regimes it is found on all royal, imperial or presidential tables. Sèvres has continuously produced new fashionable models that have been widely admired and imitated.

Henry Dasson was one of the most famous cabinetmakers and bronzers of the second half of the 19th century. It has been praised by critics and has been awarded at each exhibition in which it has participated. He became interested in old masterpieces, particularly from the 18th century. A bronzier by training, the quality of carving at Dasson is exceptional, both in technique and in inventiveness. The ornamentation of bronze is important, its technique is prodigious, it will be noted that its master models are of great rigor and absolute finesse, which allows a very good rendering to the foundry. Many of the subjects of his sculptures are of his own creation, such as the friezes of certain pieces of furniture or the female caryatids on the angles or the sheathed feet. The garnish is exceptionally rich, it is also by it that we recognize Dasson's production. The gilded mercury gildings dominate and the very yellow gildings are browned, which gives them relief. Dasson obtains great artistic prices, becomes knight of the legion of honor in 1883 and officer in 1889. He dies in 1896 and is buried in Père Lachaise where a bust of Dallier overhangs his tomb.