Large ormolu mounted Sèvres style porcelain vase

This fine vase features superb ormolu mounts and beautiful cobalt blue Sèvres style porcelain. The vase is crafted in the Neoclassical style, though the painted scenes on the front and the back of the vase recall the Rococo, with their pastel shades and courtly subject matter.

The vase features an ovoid body, raised above a waisted porcelain socle by an ormolu element, the socle in turn set atop an ormolu base. The vase culminates in a large waisted neck, which is surmounted by a domed cover. Both the socle and the neck feature parcel gilt gadroons infilled with gilt foliate motifs. The cover, a later replacement for a broken original, is similarly decorated and is topped by an ormolu pinecone finial.

The body of the vase itself is painted with two panels framed within tooled gilt cartouches. The scene to the front features a courting couple set within a pastoral landscape, while the scene to the reverse portrays classicised garden elements in an idyllic countryside. Each gilt cartouche is surrounded by further scrolled gilding. The shoulders of the vase are set with twin ormolu foliate handles.

The painting to the front of the vase is signed ‘C. Hillolier’, while the underside of the socle features a spurious Sèvres mark and an inscription reading ‘Modèle et décoration exclusive à la main’, or ‘designed and decorated exclusively by hand’.