Footnotes

ALL FLOWERS IN THIS LOT ARE ILLUSTRATED IN DETAIL ONLINE

The fashion for Vincennes flowers derives mainly from the costly flower-mounted items ordered by the French Royal Court in the late 1740s and early 1750s. Tamara Préaud records six bouquets in this period (T. Préaud, Vincennes (1977) p.52f.) A source of inspiration for these flowers would have been the Royal Botanical collections at the Jardin des Plantes which was founded in 1626 as a medicinal herb garden, but very likely also the work of Nicholas Robert (1614-1685), whose many flower and plant studies in gouache were published in Recueil de diverses fleurs, Dessinées et Gravées d'après Nature pour l'Amusement des Dames, Paris (1660).

The realistically modelled blooms were intended to be mounted and integrated in larger ensembles. One of the most famous examples of the use of Vincennes flowers can be found in the Bouquet de la Dauphine, an elaborate and imposing diplomatic gift from the Dauphine Marie-Josephe de Saxe to her father, King Augustus III, in Dresden in 1749. It was presumably not lost on the receiving end that this was a clear demonstration of both technical and artistic prowess, and begged for a favourable comparison to the porcelain produced at Meissen, arguably unrivaled in taste and technical ability until that time. It heralded the beginning of rococo fashion, which was to sweep Europe, and ultimately force the Meissen factory to review its repertoir considerably.

Another famous example of the incorporation of Vincennes flowers in a larger presentation piece is the so-called Sunflower Clock (c. 1752). Composed of a Vincennes vase, porcelain flowers and ormolu mounts, it is highly reminiscent of the Bouquet de la Dauphine, except for a large ormolu clock shaped as a sunflower placed amongst the flowers. The clock is described in detail by Geoffrey de Bellaigue, French Porcelain in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen (2009), cat.no. 1, p. 90-96. In a recent presentation to the French Porcelain Society, Decorative Arts conservator at the Royal Collections David Wheeler has been able to shed new light on the origins of the flowers, the subsequent 19th century repairs and its recent restoration. Many of the flowers in the Bouquet de la Dauphine and the Sunflower Clock are directly comparable to those in the present lots.