Jasmine vase with neoclassical decoration, Manufacture de Locré circa 1800

Horn vase
Painted and gilded hard porcelain
Underglaze blue mark
Dimensions: H. 21 ; D. 20 (cm.)
Paris, circa 1800

Rare, finely decorated cornet or jasmine vase. Forming a two-part cache-pot, it is adorned with large sections of burnished gold. The pedestal features a frieze of finely burnished and scratched ovals. The body of the vase with alternating ternary mandorles featuring zoomorphic lyres and antagonistic winged griffins. All very finely gilded.

This is a fine example of neoclassicism, using motifs based on the engraving of ancient bas-reliefs, all adapted to a luxurious everyday object.
This porcelain can be compared with a late 2nd-century bas-relief featuring a winged griffin, probably executed in Campania and bequeathed by Francis Bartlett in 1900 to the Museum of Fine Art, Boston.

Unlike earthenware, porcelain factories flourished under the Empire, particularly in Paris. The period 1800-1820 can be considered the golden age of porcelain in Paris. Nineteen factories already existed in Paris in 1800, but only seven had been founded under the Ancien Régime: Dihl et Guérard, Houzel, Lemaire et Josse, Pouyat et Russinger, Schoelcher, Despréz et Nast. In contrast to the last twenty years of the 18th century, marked by a shift from rocaille to antique simplicity, the first thirty years of the 19th century saw the opposite, evolving from antique sobriety to rococo.

Condition report: excellent condition, very fresh