Large vase of SÈVRES Napoleon III. France, second... Lot 3

Large vase of SÈVRES Napoleon III. France, second half of the 19th century. Hand-painted porcelain. Signed "Georges Émile Poitevin" on the front. With the seal of Sèvres and the legend "given by the Duke of Richelieu to the Princess of Lamballe" on the back of the lid. Measurements: 130 x 40 cm (diameter). Ornamental vase decorated with pictorial scenes, the front with a gallant theme and the back with a landscape theme, both by Georges Émile Poitevin, a Parisian painter recorded as exhibiting many porcelain themes in the Paris Salons of the 1870s and early 1880s and listed by W.Neuwirth, Porzellanmaler-Lexicon 1840-1914. Poitevin's careful decoration of the front, depicting two ladies listening attentively to the words of a gallant, is remarkable. Both the foot on which the main body rests and the mouth of the vase are decorated with gilt fillets on a cobalt-blue background, characteristic of the Sèvres style, combined with finely delineated vegetal representations, garlands and vases. The lid has a pineapple-shaped handle. Originally founded in Vincennes in 1740, the Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres was transferred to Vincennes in 1756. One of the leading European porcelain factories, the Manufacture was successively named after different political regimes: royal, imperial and national manufactory. Still active today, the firm continues to produce objects created since 1740, although its current production is largely oriented towards contemporary creation. The Manufacture de Vincennes was founded with the support of Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour, with the idea of creating pieces for the court and competing with the porcelain productions of Meissen and Chantilly. In fact, the first experiments were carried out by the brothers Robert and Gilles Dubois, who came from the Chantilly manufactory. By 1745, under the direction of the Gravant couple, important results had been achieved, in particular the creation of models of porcelain flowers to decorate all kinds of pieces. The new building in Sèvres, where the manufactory moved to in 1756, was built on the initiative of Madame de Pompadur. Three years later, it was designated a royal factory, and from that time onwards it was the only one in France to use fine gold. In its early years, the factory produced mainly soft paste; hard porcelain, with kaolin, was not marketed in Sèvres until 1770. Among the innovations of this manufactory in the 18th century were coloured backgrounds and the use of biscuit for small sculptures. During the French Revolution, the factory suffered a decline in production, but experienced a revival between 1800 and 1847 under the direction of Alexandre Brongniart, who brought the factory international fame. During these years, many important technical innovations were made, and a number of contemporary artists collaborated with the manufacture. During this period, a new gilding technique was introduced, which was made shiny by burnishing the surface with an agate stone. The pieces were also decorated with opaque gilding, which was done by rubbing the gold with very fine sand. It was at this time that, for ornamental vases, a cartouche became established as the central theme, in the manner of an oil painting, with a gilt cartouche on a monochrome background. From the mid-19th century onwards, the dominant styles were eclecticism and historicism, and some models revived typologies from the past, such as the Mannerism of Fontainebleau and the Baroque of Versailles.