SÈVRES, circa 1775-1785 - Lot 204

SÈVRES, circa 1775-1785 Pair of covered vases in soft porcelain and chased and gilded bronze. The frames are decorated with friezes of pearls and ovals, and the handles with foliage are held by falls of flowers. They stand on a leafy pedestal with ovals and ribbons, ending in a solid base. H. 34 cm Provenance: by tradition, Caserta Castle, Italy; Jacques Seligmann, Paris; collection of Mrs. Henry Walters, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, April 26, 1941, lot 647, sold for $1,600. Our pair of vases was part of the collection of Mrs. Henry Walters, sold in New York in 1941. The sale catalog stated that, by tradition, they came from Caserta Castle near Naples. The Royal Castle of Caserta was the palace of the Bourbon royal family of Naples, where Queen Maria Carolina of Naples (1752-1814), sister of Marie-Antoinette, and her husband King Ferdinand IV, King of Naples and Sicily, resided. Marie Caroline of Naples received a gift of a Sèvres porcelain service decorated with her cipher from the hands of Louis XV in February 1774 on the occasion of the christening of her second daughter. A pair of vases decorated with roses on a celestial blue ground, of the same shape and with identical gilded bronze mounts is preserved at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris (Grandjean legacy, inv. no. GR 198). (ill. 1)