Offered by Schoppmann Art and Antiques
Pair of spindle vases
Painted hard porcelain with gold highlights
Signed in cobalt blue underglaze
Dimensions: H. 27.5 (cm.)
Paris, circa 1820
Rare pair of spindle-shaped vases, resting on a quadrangular base with square handles. Alternating gold friezes on a nankin background for the base, green and violet, as well as superb historiated decoration in the troubadour style, framed by Gothic modenature including rosettes and ogives.
As far as we know, both the form and the model are special cases in the productions of the Parisian manufactory of Dihl et Guérhard. Indeed, the troubadour style seems to have been only timidly adopted by the major porcelain manufacturers around 1820. However, a few plates and cups, notably from the Sèvres factory, or the Imperial factory in St. Petersburg, replaced traditional ornaments with this new repertoire.
It would seem that the gothic revival is more frequent on everyday objects: teapots, photophores, inkwells, clocks, as evidenced by the night-light models by Dagoty or Nast, the spectacular polychrome cathedral-shaped clocks by Dagoty and Honoré, and a “Jasmin-Percier” vase now in the Petit Palais, made in 1822 at the Manufacture Royale de Sèvres, painted by Vigné and gilded by Sorel [inv.
ODUT 1930], which features a similar decoration of figures separated by arcatures.
Dihl and Guérhard
In 1781, Christophe Dihl and his wife Antoine Guérhard set up a hard-paste porcelain factory on rue de Bondi in Paris, under the patronage of the Duc d'Angoulême, who was only 6 years old. Dihl contributed his creative genius as a sculptor and a large number of molds, while the Guérhards provided the funds. By 1785, there were already 12 sculptors and 30 painters, and a full order book. In 1787, a decree emancipated the manufactory which, in contemporary memory, equaled the Sèvres manufactory, and which no one wanted to see disappear! Madame Guérhard even diplomatically sent a kiln worker to Sèvres to modify the new kiln. In 1789, the factory moved to rue du Temple. That year, Gouverneur Morris, the United States representative in Paris, purchased porcelain for George Washington. By 1793, the factory had 500 workers. M. Guérhard dies. In 1797, Madame Guérhard and Mr. Dihl married. High-quality earthenware, state-of-the-art kilns, colors, shapes, sculptures (Lemire) and paintings (Le Guay) of every beauty, the factory remains a benchmark.
The trademark “M[anufactu]re de Mgr/ le Duc d'Angoulême/ à Paris” was used until the French Revolution. Thereafter, the names Dihl and/or Guérhard were used. The imperial era marked the heyday of the factory. However, after triumphing at the 1806 exhibition of French industrial products, the company experienced a decline in activity from 1810 onwards, even though Empress Josephine commissioned a prestigious service from it in 1811-1813. The company was dissolved in 1828 and Dihl died in 1830.
Condition report:
Excellent condition, very slight wear
