SAINT-CLOUD Lot n° 3

Exceptional pharmacy beaker with polychrome and gold decoration featuring a mortar and pestle with the coat of arms of France, the serpent of Aesculapius, a still and a tobacco plant set on alternating flowery mounds with the attributes of the barber-apothecary held by ribbons suspended from a garland of acanthus leaves, palmettes, rosettes and fillets on the neck. The lower part is decorated with flowering rocks in a reserved band, and the heel with a frieze of sea monsters on an iron-red background. Early 18th century. Circa 1700-1710. Height: 7.5 cm - Diameter: 8 cm Provenance : Château du Blaisois. In 1701, the after-death inventory of Monsieur, the King's brother and patron of the Saint-Cloud manufactory, mentions two Saint-Cloud porcelain goblets engraved and filled with gold. Only one other example of this model is known, and it is preserved in the Musée de Sèvres (inv. MNC 22846; reproduced in Les porcelainiers du XVIIIe siècle français, Hachette, 1964, p. 62). Henri-Pierre FOUREST, former curator of the Musée de Sèvres, considered this model to be the earliest known evidence of the gilding and stamping experiments carried out at Saint-Cloud in the late 17th century, as reported by Martin LISTER in 1698. In the catalog published for the exhibition organized by The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts in New York in 1999, Discovering the Secrets of Soft-Paste Porcelain at The Saint-Cloud Manufactory ca. 1690- 1766, the article entitled Gold-Foil Decoration (p. 296) of course mentions Martin LISTER and the mystery surrounding the first attempts at gilding at Saint-Cloud. This lot is accompanied by its export certificate for cultural property.