183.
TWO ‘FAMILLE VERTE’ BOWLS FORMING A POT-POURRI WITH GILT METAL MOUNT
the porcelain Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, early 18th century; the mount probably French, mid 18th century
22 cm high
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 4563.
This piece is a composition of two bowls joined together by the gilt bronze mount.
The exuberant gilt bronze mount consists of a round ribbed foot, rings to underline the rims of both the bowls with the one on the upper bowl with incised floral scrolls, the upper side (a round plaque originally belonging to a third ‘Famille Verte’ porcelain piece) with a flower tip, the wall of the upper bowl with a series of circular holes framed by gilt bronze rings to allow the perfume to spread.
The decoration of the bowls is painted in the bright enamels of the ‘Famille Verte’, the exterior of the walls of the lower one with a series of panels alternating ‘bird and flowers’ compositions to scenes with animals in the landscape, the upper bowl with floral compositions inside radiating panels.
The use of transforming Chinese porcelain containers into pot-pourri thanks to the application of bronze mounts had a great diffusion especially in France in the years of the reign of Louis XV (1710-1784), during which the rococo taste would have reached its apex (G. Wilson, Mounted Oriental Porcelain in the J. Paul Getty Museum, revisited edition, Los Angeles 1999).
In particular, the association between Chinese or Japanese porcelain and gilt bronze frames to create objects that served to contain perfumed mixtures was an invention of the marchands-merchiers, those Parisian art dealers – such as Lazare Duvaux (1703-1758) – who contributed in an essential way to forming the taste of that era. In their inventories there are numerous mentions relating to these pot-pourri, which so thrilled, for example, Madame de Pompadour (1721-1764), undoubtedly one of the most influential figures of that time .
Originally the term pot-pourri referred to a scented mixture of plant and flowers, later extended also to the vase containing them. The most famous Parisian parfumiers prepared these mixtures according to secret recipes, as noted by the art historian Louis Courajod (1841-1896): “Quelques recettes, réputées merveilleuses, étaients rédigées; l’odeur de tel pot-pourri faisait école; & des formules ayant un caractère cabalistique se transmettaient dans la familles avec autant de soin que les beaux vases du Japon ou de la Chine destinés à recevoir ces parfums”.
