View full screen - View 1 of Lot 338. A pair of Capodimonte or Buen Retiro porcelain flower tubs, circa 1755-60.

A pair of Capodimonte or Buen Retiro porcelain flower tubs, circa 1755-60

Estimate

400 - 600 EUR

Lot Details

Description

of square form with gilt ball finials, after the Vincennes model, each side painted with stems of exotic Asiatic flowers, pierced with a small hole to the centre of the base, fleur de lys marks in underglaze-blue


7,3 cm, 2 ¾ in. high

Christie’s, Rome, 24 April 1999, lot 330;

Giovanni & Gabriella Barilla Collection, Geneva, sold, Replica Shoes ’s, London, 14 March 2012, lot 251.

This shape of flower pot or tub is rare in Italian porcelain and does not appear be recorded in the literature. It was called caisse à fleurs carrée at the Vincennes factory where the form was first made and was probably originally derived from the large flower tubs used in the gardens of Versailles to grow orange trees for Louis XIV. For a full discussion of decoration ‘all’orientale’ at Capodimonte see A. Caròla-Perrotti, Le Porcellane dei Borbone di Napoli, Capodimonte e Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea 1743-1806, exhibition catalogue, Naples, 1986, pp. 59-63.