Pair of Large Covered Vases of Sèvres 1779

Description :
Painted and gilded soft porcelain, chased bronze.

This very beautiful pair of vases from the XVIIIth century has a shape close to the architectural cassolettes.
A bronze base decorated with foliage carries the pedestal of the vase.
The fluted pedestal is enhanced by gilded fillets, its curve flares out horizontally which is typical of the design of pedestals in the eighteenth century.
A bucolic scene on decor of ancient monuments surrounds the body of the vase, we see a part of Colin Maillard and escarpolette.
The painting is an animated scene and made entirely around the vase, which requires a considerable work with a quality without weakness, one will think of Boucher or Caton for example which committed similar decorations at this time.
The blue background of sèvres is decorated with motifs of gilding raised by a complex and elegant work in agate.
The crown lids, whose reliefs are also surrounded by gold, refine the silhouette of these vases (one of them is placed at an angle to show its proportions).
Bronze rings decorated with pearls adorn the base, the neck and the base of the body.
Like all the vases of Sevres one will appreciate its exceptional quality.
Mark with the two intertwined L and letters BB in blue dating them in 1779.
We are at the end of the use of the soft paste replaced gradually by the hard paste after the discovery in 1768 of kaolin in quantity in St Yrieix close to Limoges, in 1804, the soft paste will be definitively abandoned.
During this transition, the mark with the two L's will be surmounted by a crown to indicate an object in hard paste (1769 to 1793), thus making the distinction with the last soft pastes as for our vases which do not have this crown.
The disappearance of the crown is technically justified and will result in the loss of some elements of ornamentation that made the XVIIIth century "exceptional".

Condition :
Almost perfect condition, small cracks without fragility and invisible (inside the vase) near the threaded fasteners.

Dimensions :
Height: 42 cm , base: 15 cm x 15 cm, large width: 23 cm .
Ref 3479/ 6, 12 kg/ 28000

Ref: TW6ADNI7D2