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Londonderry Vase

Gold porcelain vase with flowers, birds, profile heads on handles.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • Gold porcelain vase with flowers, birds, profile heads on handles.

Date:

1813

Artist:

Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory (Sèvres, France, founded 1740)
Designed by Charles Percier (French, 1764–1838)
Decoration designed by Alexandre-Theodore Brogniart (French, 1739–1813)
Flowers and ornament painted by Gilbert Drouet (French, 1785–1825)
Birds painted by Christophe-Ferdinand Caron (French, active 1792–1815)

About this artwork

This vase epitomizes the great achievements of the royal porcelain factory at Sèvres during the Napoleonic period. Sèvres was a chief beneficiary of Napoleon’s policy of resuscitating factories after the trauma of the French Revolution; demonstrating the supremacy of French craftsmanship, the emperor used sumptuous porcelain in his palaces as well as for state gifts. With its monumental size, rigorous symmetry, and unabashed splendor, this vase is a superb example of the Empire style inspired by Greco-Roman art. It is a triumph of the collaborative practice of the Sèvres factory; documents reveal the precise roles played by each artist in its creation. Napoleon’s chief architect, Charles Percier, created the Etruscan scroll-handled design. The vase was commissioned by Napoleon in 1805 but was produced only in 1813 and was still at the factory when he was exiled the following year. It was used as a diplomatic gift from his successor, King Louis XVIII, to Viscount Castlereagh, the British foreign secretary and, from 1821, the 2nd Marquess of Londonderry.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Applied Arts of Europe

Artist

Manufacture nationale de Sèvres (Manufacturer)

Title

Londonderry Vase

Place

Sèvres (Object made in)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1813

Medium

Hard-paste porcelain, polychrome enamels, gilding, and gilt bronze mounts

Inscriptions

Mark: Sèvres mark for 1813-1815; (in gold) 30 Mars B. T. Drouet, 1813

Dimensions

137.2 × 83.2 cm (54 × 32 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of the Harry and Maribel G. Blum Fund and the Harold L. Stuart Endowment

Reference Number

1987.1

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/68769/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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