Sophie von der Goltz
Head of Sale
The Richard Deacon Collection
Lot 61*
A Vincennes bleu-céleste ground flower vase (cuvette à fleurs 'Verdun'), circa 1755
2 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£5,000 - £7,000
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Nette Megens
Head of Department, Director
Sebastian Kuhn
Department Director
Raphael Machiels
Associate Specialist
Ghislaine Howard
Sale Coordinator
A Vincennes bleu-céleste ground flower vase (cuvette à fleurs 'Verdun'), circa 1755
Of the first size, each side with an oval reserve, painted by André-Vincent Vielliard, the front with putti in a landscape after Boucher within an elaborate gilt cartouche of foliage, trailing flowers, floral swags, bat-wing panels and scrolls, the reverse painted with fruit and flowers within a gilt border of husks and foliate scrollwork above trailing gilt flowers above the footrim, the moulded scrollwork handles and rims edged in gilding 31.3cm across; 16cm high, interlaced LL monogram with slightly obscured date letter, probably B, and painter's mark in blue (restored cracks around base, some wear to gilding)
Footnotes
Provenance:
The Collection of Robert Lehman, New York;
Purchased from Adrian Sassoon, London, in 2002
Literature:
Froissart, Cyrille, Des Cuvettes Démasquées, 2014, p.13, fig. 21
Cyrille Froissart compellingly reassigned the names of several vases listed in the Sèvres archives to different forms in a paper given to the French Porcelain Society in 2014. The shape of the present flower vase, previously identified as the vase à compartiments ou Choisy, is now recognized as corresponding to the cuvette à fleurs 'Verdun', while the flower vase previously thought to have been the cuvette à fleurs 'Verdun' has now been identified as the cuvette 'Roussel'. For an in-depth discussion, see Cyrille Froissart, Des Cuvettes Démasqués, 2014, pp. 1–40.
Both Froissart and Rosalind Savill note that Lazare Duvaux purchased a cuvette Verdun enfants colorés in the second half of 1755 for 600 livres (and another of the same description and price in 1757) (C. Froissart, op cit., 2014, p. 13 and Rosalind Savill, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, Vol. I, 1988, p.60). This piece was previously thought to be the bleu céleste cuvette now in the Wallace Collection (R. Savill, op cit., p.58-59, no. C214), which has since been reidentified as a cuvette 'Roussel'. In light of this revised attribution, it is now conceivable that the present lot may in fact be the very example acquired by Duvaux in 1755.