Covered Vase (Vase C de 1780 or Vase Paris)

The oviform vase has a blue (so called "bleu nouveau") ground and is decorated with a mythological scene, "The Sacrifice of Iphigenia," from Ovid's Metamorphosis on one side, and a landscape on the other. It bears an additional decoration of "jewels" composed of enamel drops over gold foil (pearls, rossettes, strawberry leaves, laurel leaves, and berries in white, green, and orange) around these scenes, and on the neck, foot, and cover. Pierced and gilded handles run along the full length of the vase.

Inscription

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.

Collection of Baron Adolphe Carl von Rothschild (1823–1900) and Baroness Caroline Julie Anselme von Rothschild (1830–1907), Paris [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; inherited by Baron Maurice Edmond Karl de Rothschild (1881–1957), Paris, 1907; sold to Asher Wertheimer (1843–1918), London, 1909. Collection of Edwin Marriott Hodgkins (1860–1932), Paris, by 1927 [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [1]; with A. Seligmann, Rey and Co., New York, by 1928 [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; purchased by Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1928; by bequest to the Walters Art Museum, 1931.

[1]. Catalogue of an Important Collection of Old Sèvres Porcelain, Louis XV and Louis XVI Period, Belonging to E.M. Hodgkins, Paris ([Paris?]: Edwin Marriott Hodgkins, 1927), number 68.