A PAIR OF PARIS PORCELAIN FIGUREAL FLASKS AND STOPPERS, MID-19TH CENTURY

The present figural flasks follow a tradition of porcelain figures of peoples from Eastern lands; a fashion driven by a fascination and fear of the Ottoman Empire and an almost insatiable desire for the novel and the unusual. The European interest in the Orient and all things Oriental was a combination of informed representations of the people, costume and culture of the Ottoman Empire and an imagined and theatrical vision of the exotic east. Many European makers of luxury goods embraced the opportunity to produce items which would appeal to the fashionable European consumer as well as new customers to the East. All of the major 18^th century European porcelain manufactories produced exotic Eastern figures, probably the most influential being the figures modelled by J. J. Kaendler at Meissen. In France the fashion for the East survived the Revolution and flourished throughout the 19^th century and its influence is seen in a variety of fine and decorative arts as well as in interior design. The 19^th century saw the production of a number of Turkish figures which owe much to the influence of the rococo but in a bolder style. Jacob Petit, a highly successful Paris maker of luxury porcelain from small ornamental items through to larger architectural pieces was known for the production of functional sculptural items such as standing figural flasks and seated figures which served as incense burners. These figures appear to represent the final flourish of an 18^th century revival whereas the second half of the 19^th century saw the potters such as Theodore Deck, Ulisse Cantagalli and William de Morgan reproduce and reinterpret the products of the Middle East. See Haydn Williams, Turquerie, An Eighteenth-Century European Fantasy, London, 2014, pp. 210-11, fig. 274 for a discussion of these figures illustrated with a similar pair.