Samson - Pair Of ‘'kakiemon’' Porcelain Bottle Buckets Imitating St Cloud

Pair of bottle buckets
Painted and gilded hard porcelain
Apocryphal mark on the underside
Dimensions: H. 18.5; D. 21 (cm.)
Paris, circa 1870

Pair of porcelain bottle buckets, by the Samson factory. They stand on gadrooned feet. Zoomorphic grips and molding at the top. Chinese scenes on both sides.

Samson and imitation
This model reproduces an iconic 18th-century shape and design known as “kakiemon”, produced by the Chantilly and Saint-Cloud manufactures in soft paste. By the second half of the 19th century, the popularity of these pieces was such that some manufacturers began designing them in hard paste. Our pair is perfectly documented in the manufactory's production, as shown in the last photo [1]. More than a simple pastiche, these shaped pieces offer a pragmatic and accessible reinterpretation of references in the arts of fire.

[1] Samson, génie de l'imitatio, Florence Slitine, Massin, 2002, p. 121, for the store's display case, which features a piece identical to ours.

Condition report: slight wear from use.