Pair of Vases (Vases des âges à têtes d'enfants)

This pair of vases, together with three others now in the collection of the Getty Museum, Los Angeles (accession nos. 84.DE.718.1-3) formed a matching set, or garniture, that was produced by the French royal porcelain factory, Sèvres, in 1781. With handles modeled as the busts of boys (the Walters vases), young women and bearded men (the Getty vases), these shapes were titled the “vases des âges” (vases of the ages) by the factory. The set that included the Walters vases is among the most lavish ever produced at Sèvres and they were purchased by the king, Louis XVI (1754–1793), for his private library in the Château of Versailles in early November 1781. Many of the manufactory's foremost talents participated in the production of these porcelains. The neoclassical shapes were designed by Jacques-François Deparis, possibly with the assistance of Louis-Simon Boizot (who headed the factory's sculpture workshop). The miniature scenes in the reserves on the fronts of the vases were painted by Antoine Caton and copy illustrations from the 1773 edition of “Les Aventures de Télémaque, fils d'Ulysse” (The Adventures of Telemachus, son of Ulysses) by François Fénelon, a favorite book of Louis XVI. Étienne-Henry Le Guay was responsible for the gilding, and the three-dimensional "jewels," actually drops of translucent enamel over stamped gold foils, were the work of Philippe Parpette.

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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.

Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory, Sèvres, France; purchased by Louis XVI, King of France, Chateau de Versailles, Versailles, France, 2 November 1781. Possibly with Jean-Louis Pérès (d. 1835), dealer, Paris, by 1819 [1]; purchased by Sir Henry Fetherstonhaugh, 2nd Baronet (1754–1846), Uppark House, South Harting, West Sussex, England, 1819 (?); inherited by his wife, Mary Ann Bullock (1804–1874), Uppark, 1846; inherited by her sister, Frances Bullock (1817–1895), Uppark, 1874; bequeathed to Lt. Colonel the Hon. Keith Turnour (1848–1930), Uppark, 1895; sold to Frank Partridge, dealer, London, 1911. Collection of Edwin Marriott Hodgkins (1860–1932), Paris, by 1927 [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [2]; 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]. Anthony Du Boulay, “French Porcelain at Uppark: A Re-Assessment. The French Porcelain Society Monographs,” vol. XV (London: French Porcelain Society, 2000), pp. 3-28. This object’s ownership from its sale by Pérès in 1819 through its sale to Frank Partridge in 1911 are outlined by Du Boulay based on records housed in the Fetherstonhaugh Archive, West Sussex Records Office, Chichester UK.
[2]. “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 69. In this catalogue Hodgkins indicates this vase was “Formerly in the Park Heirloom Collection.“ Further information about this collection has not yet been discovered.