Curator's Choice: The Best of the Decorative Arts

Curators' Choice: The Best of the Decorative Arts

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May 7 to August 9, 1992 The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Boston, Massachusetts

Exploring Treasures in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum IV:

Curators' Choice: The Best of the Decorative Arts

Ellenor Alcorn The Mu seum of Fine Arts, Boston

Troy Moss The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Jeffrey Munger The Mu seum of Fine Arts, Boston

May 7 to August 9, 1992 The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Boston, Massachusetts

THE DECORATIVE ARTS AND FENW AY COURT'S PLACE IN CONTEMPORARY INTERIOR DECORATION

The decorative arts may be loosely defined as objects made to be used in homes but consciously created to be aesthetic objects in themselves. They differ from painting, sculpture, and such ("the fine arts") in that they are, potentially at least, functional.

They differ from their humbler cousins ("objects of everyday use" such as kitchen crockery and glassware) in their artistic refinement. Furniture, silver, porcelain, glass, textiles, and dozens of other, smaller categories of objects make up the decorative arts. In the earlier part of this century they were called the applied arts; in French they are known as objets d'art or objets de virtueas well as Les arts decoratifs.

These objects often register changes in styles much more readily than schools of painting or other of the fine arts do. The variations in taste from generation to generation, or even from decade to decade, are recorded in the objects people bought to decorate their homes. The decorative arts are highly vulnerable to breakage and damage because they are objects of use. Paradoxically, often the surviving pieces that have come down to us were the finest examples, put aside and not used because of their aesthetic appeal. In this small exhibition we have chosen from among the finest examples in the various media of the Gardner collection.

Mrs. Gardner had substantially completed her collection before Fenway Court was built. Plans for the new building had been in progress since about 1896; construction of it began in June of 1899. The building was sufficiently complete by December of 1900 for her to take up residence. The placement of the larger pieces of art had been incorporated into the original designs of Fenway Court, and were

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installed with dispatch. It was, then, the display of the decorative arts, the mise-enscene of the whole, that delayed the opening of the museum until January 1, 1903.

The formation of the Gardner collection and the evolution of Fenway Court coincided with the demise of the Victorian style in domestic interiors. Although the "cluttered style" remained in vogue until ca. 1895, the forces that had militated against it finally prevailed. In the 1870s and 1880s writers, and in turn designers and manufacturers, reacted against the heavy, densely decorated interiors of the Victorian era and began to promote a style of decoration they referred to as "Renaissance." What they meant was styles prior to the Victorian age: Jacobean, Louis XIV, XV, and XVI, Georgian, and Queen Anne to name the most eminent. At this time too were the beginnings of what was to become Modernism: William Morris, Charles Eastlake, the Arts and Crafts Movement, then Art Nouveau, the Viennese Succession, and so on. These early roots of the Modern Movement have been studied to the exclusion of the mainstream during those decades. But very few people decorated their homes according to the precepts of these design pioneers.

Most people, Mrs. Gardner included, took their inspiration from current books and periodicals, much as is still done today. This mainstream decoration of domestic interiors of the end of the last century is sometimes called "Queen Anne" in England and in America, "Colonial revival" (the 1876 centenniel contributing to the latter); "Free Renaissance" and "Romantic Classicism" are others of the movement's inexact names.

An important book that promoted this trend was Jacob van Falke's Art in the House published in Boston in 1878. Another was Artistic Homes: Interior Views of

a number of the Most Beautiful and Celebrated Homes in the United States, being a Description of the Art Treasures contained therein (New York, 1883-84), in which the Gardner's Beacon Street house appeared. A well-thumbed copy of The Art of Decoration by Mrs. H. R. Haweis (London, 1881) is still among Mrs. Gardner's books preserved at the Museum. Such books promoted a style that was both luxurious and practical. And for the first time the use of antique furniture was recommended.

The style is probably most easily defined by citing the most obvious, and opulent, examples of it: the chateaux of Newport, Rhode Island. Fenway Court is far less ostentatious than the Newport "cottages," as befits its Boston location, but it shares with them the spacious and airy interior spaces filled with fine furnishings meant for use.

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This then was the milieu in which Mrs. Gardner set out to install her collection in her new home. And it should be borne in mind that the Isabella Stewart Gard~er Museum is the only American building to be intentionally designed as both a home and a museum, instead of the former becoming the latter at a later date. The collection of the Museum contains roughly three-hundred pieces of furniture, one-hundred-thirty pieces of porcelain and faience, seventy pieces of silver, and a hundred pieces of glass. Mrs. Gardner must have tried hundreds (if not thousands) of combinations of objects before obtaining the installation to be seen today. Two very thorough photo documentations, one from 1903 and one from 1926, show that she altered her installation relatively little after 1902.

Contemporary writings did certainly have an influence on her. In various galleries there are to be found a number of very fine fifteenth- and sixteenthcentury Italian picture frames that contain pieces of antique fabrics, a decorative effect recommended at the end of the last century, although one that seems peculiar to current sensibilities. But her philosophy of decorating was very much her own.

She -paid little attention to objects' dates or places of manufacture. She clustered them solely on the basis of their aesthetic appeal; an excellent example of her understanding of the interaction of colors is her placement of the fourteenthcentury fragment of an Islamic mosque lamp directly beneath the Botticelli

Madonna of the Eucharist . Such aesthetic decisions resulted in groupings that may be incongruous to a historian but are ever-engaging to the eye. Her installations were also clearly guided by consideration of how light would have struck the objects.

This might seem contradictory to us today, who in our familiarity with modern lighting devices perceive the Museum' s lighting to be dim (she did not use electricity). Rather, we have to imagine the galleries of the Museum with a fire in every fireplace and illuminated by the 550 candles still found throughout the rooms (most are now electrified). Cases overstuffed with silver or glass would have sparkled with their own intense luminosity; the reflected gleam from furniture, glass, porcelain, and silver would have had a luster that we cannot know. She placed a number of etched Venetian mirrors high up in some galleries to reflect the candlelight and illuminate what would otherwise have been dark spots. She also took daylight conditions into consideration as well, evident in her situating objects and paintings adjacent to windows. In one window of the Titian Room, she placed the Nativity by Liberale da Verona on a hinge, so that the painting can be safely moved out of the direct rays of the sun during the spring and summer months, yet

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drawn back towards the light from the window as the seasons change and the sunlight is muted.

Her installation was one of quiet grandeur. Old master paintings and sculpture were placed throughout the galleries that had been designed to hold them, and then decorative objects were added to evoke the human element. In nearly every gallery there is an arrangement of a writing table with a painting mounted on it. On the table are writing implements--such as ink pots, letter openers, and letter portfolios: decorative arts all. Such an arrangement was no doubt intended to inspire the writer by presenting great art in a context of "use" in the functional decoration of a space. Throughout the museum decorative art objects of extreme refinement are installed for use: the very definition of "luxurious and practical."

Mrs. Gardner was quite vocal in her displeasure with what was becoming the norm in museum display : plain white-walled rooms into which were put paintings and objects in such a way that they bore no relationship to each other. She considered such installations cold and uninformative. In contrast, the rich melange in her Museum displays the objects in terms of an assemblage, the great works of art coexisting comfortably with the lesser. The objects all seem to rest in their obvious locations. Whatever the source of inspiration that served Mrs. Gardner to install her Museum, it is gratifying to see museum-quality objects in the setting for which they were originally made: a home.

In selecting the objects for this exhibition (which appear chronologically in the catalogue), the authors chose only secular European objects of the past few centuries. Textiles were presented in an exhibition in 1991; Oriental, Islamic, and medieval objects, as well as jewelry will figure in exhibitions in their own right.

While this catalogue deals with twenty-three objects made of porcelain, silver, glass,

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FOOTED BOWL Italy, Venice, ca. 1525 H: 6 7 /16" (16.4 cm); diam. 10 5/8" (27 cm) C26N28 PROVE ANCE: Ga tano Pep , Nap! , 1897 The large colorle s glass bowl i decorated on the ext rior with a dotted pattern o f white, blue, and red enamel known as "nip t-dian1o nd-wai ,"wi th a r w of white dot above and below the decoration. The base of the bowl i dee rated with a wirling pattern of counter-clockwise w rythen gadroons. Its rim is evcrted and folded . The bowl i attached directly to a mo ld-blown faceted foot whose rim is also e erted and folded . The large ponttl mMk (the scar l ft w hen th blow pipe is cut off the molten glass) of the foot i unpoll hed.

Products of the n tian gla mak r w r v ry high! prized all over Europe at the time this b v I ' a made. n gi n that uch piece were ca reful ly preserved, this type of large foot d bov I mu t hav b n produc din a gr at quantity as examples of such bowl b long t num r u public and privat c II ctions. Before the sixteenth c ntury, V nic had pr due d main! c 1 r d gla (u ually blu ) in imitation of the Isla mic gla that in pir d it, but ar und 1500 th pr f r nc for rolorless glass ("cristall ") pr d minal d. Th xacl purp of uch a b wl i unknown.

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TAZZA

Italy, Venice, ca. 1525 Glass with gilt and enamel decoration H: 21/16" (5.2 cm); diam. 91/2" (24 cm) C26N54 PROVENANCE: Gaetano Pepe, Naples, 1897 The colorless mold-blown shall ow circular bowl with everted folded rim is attached directly to a short foot with folded rim which retains traces of gi lding. The pontil scar of the foot is unpolished. The rim of the bowl is decorated with warm-pain ted imbricated gi lt d ots. In the central medallion is a coldpainted white swan on a greensward with water in the foreground and yellow "gold en rain" drops in the sky. The central medallion is surrounded by a red enamel circle.

Tazzas such as this example were made in a large number during the early sixteenth century in Venice and are to be found in a number of museums. Often the central 路 medallion was painted with a coat of arms, but medallions with a single animal on a lawn with the curious gold rays, such as here, are also common; the Lion of St. Mark, the symbol of the city of Venice, was another popular motif for these footed plates.

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CHALICE Italy, late 16th century(?)

Silver MARKS: none H: 10 1/4" (26 cm); w. 41/2" (11.4 cm) PROVENANCE: Acquired through Richard Norton, Rome, 1900 The cup rests on a molded quatrefoil base that is decorated arou nd the rim with cast and chased heads of putti alternating with swags of foliage. At each co rner of the base are the sea ted figures of Justice, Charity, Fortitude, and Patience. The knop is composed of cast caryatid figures alternating with scrolling brackets and putto heads . The gilt cup has a sligh tly flaring rim and the lower half is covered by a pierced sleeve embossed with scenes from the life of C hri st above panels containing the Evangelists. The Last Supper, the Agony in the Garden, the Betrayal, and the Washi ng of the Disciples' Feet arc represented.

This chalice was purchased by Mrs. Gardner as the work of the Florentine goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571). From the late eighteenth century on, Cellini's name was associated by collectors and dealers with an inordinate number of objects in the Renaissance style; his lofty reputation was due in part to interest in his autobiography. Historicist objects attributed to Cellini proliferated in the nineteenth century, and the Gardner chalice might possibly belong to this category. Though it cannot be stylistically associated with Cellini (whose only surviving piece of metalwork is the gold saltcellar made for Francis I), it does share features with other Mannerist objects. The figures style may be compared to the altar cross and candlesticks by Antonio Gentile (Faenza, 1581) in the Vatican Sacristy, and the densely ornamented surface recalls the Farnese Casket by Manno di Sebastiano Sbarri (Florence, 1561). A date in the last quarter of the sixteenth century cannot be discounted.

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TANKARD Germany, Danzig, third quarter of the 17th century Silver, parcel gilt MARKS: on rim of foot, I over BH in a trefoil (maker's mark of Jacob Beckhausen); a crown and two crosses (town mark for Danzig). On rim of cover, maker's mark repeated; town mark repeated.

H: 8 1.4" (21 cm); diam. of base: 7 3/ 4" (19.5 cm) M21W3 PROVENANCE: A. Clerle, Venice, 1892 The cylindrical tankard rests on a domed foot that is chased with large scrolling foliage and flowers.

The body of the tankard is divided into three embossed panels, each enclosed by a cartouche of foliage and auricular ornament. One scene depicts the Annunciation, with the angel standing, right, appearing to the seated Virgin, left, within an architectural setting. The center panel depicts the Nativity; the Virgin kneels over the Child at the center flanked by Joseph, shepherds, and animals. In the third scene, the Adoration of the Magi, the Virgin is seated on a dais with the Child on her lap receiving the offerings of the Magi. The domed cover is embossed with scrolling foliage and surmounted by a finial in the form of a lamb.

The convention of ceremonial tankards with embossed scenes or foliage was well established in north Germany by about 1670. They were a particular specialty of Hamburg, where the subjects of the embossed panels included mythological and genre scenes. Religious subjects are less common. Those towns along the Baltic coast favored tankards of enormous capacity, many of which were presented to civic bodies or livery companies. The lush foliage embossed on the cover and foot of this piece is ultimately of Dutch origin, as is the abstract auricular ornament framing the scenes. This tankard bears the maker's mark of Jacob Beckhausen, who became a Master of the Danzig goldsmith's guild in 1678 and served as alderman in 1682.

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DUMMY BOARD England or the Netherlands, ca. 1700 Oil on oak(?)

H: 38" (96.5 cm) F18N29 PROVENANCE: Unknown The dummy board represents a standing boy facing three-quarters right. In his right hand he holds a broad-brimmed tan hat from which a kitten emerges. With his left hand he gestures toward the kitten. The child has curling shoulder-length hair and wears a full-skirted, tan knee-length coat with broad cuffs over a white full-sleeved shirt and a lace jabot. He wears white stockings and black buckled shoes.

Dummy boards, also known as picture boards or silent companions, were produced in England and the Netherlands from the late seventeenth century through the nineteenth century. Little contemporary documentation has been discovered to indicate their function, but they were apparantly conceived to enliven an otherwise plain or uninteresting corner of a room. Some examples are dressed as servants and shown carrying props such as a tea tray, reflecting the Dutch interest in genre scenes.

Others, such as the present example, are more fasionably clad. The pose of these elegantly dressed figures is reminsicent of those in Van Dyke's conversation pieces.

In these group portraits the subjects are shown against a sweeping landscape.

Dummy boards were made for more modest English or Dutch households than those of Van Dyke's patrons, but like a family portrait, they were intended to convey animation and a sense of the owner's style. The existence of numerous copies of the same model--figures of a boy almost identical to the present example are in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York-suggests that they were painted by professionals, rather than by amateurs as has sometimes been suggested. They were usually made in pairs; the figure of a young girl bought by Mrs . Gardner with the present figure is of later date and was probably made to complete the set.

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SIDE CHAIR Italy, possibly Venice, ca. 1740 Wood with polychrome lacquer decoration H: 43" (109 cm); w . 20 3/ 4" (52.7 cm); d. 18" (45.7 cm) F15E2 PROVENANCE: Unknown The chair has a shaped back, a yoke-shaped top rail, and a vase-shaped splat. The undulating seat rails are carved with scrolls along the lower edge, and the chair is supported by four cabriole legs ending in hoof feet. The drop-in seat is trapezoidal. The frame is decorated with an alternating blue and off-white ground . Gilt designs including floral sprays decorate the blue ground; the white ground is painted with sprays of polychrome flowers. An oriental figure seated beneath a parasol decorates the center of the splat. The lacquered surface of the chair has suffered numerous losses and has been extensively inpainted .

Furniture decorated with lacquer was popular throughout much of Europe in the eighteenth century. Both seating furniture and case pieces were lacquered; for the latter, it was common to incorporate panels of Japanese or Chinese lacquer that had been imported in the form of boxes or screens. This side chair, one of a set of twelve at the Gardner Museum, is decorated with a domestically produced lacquer made in imitation of Asian lacquer. Italian lacquer-decorated furniture is most often associated with Venice, but this technique was practiced in most Italian cities.

Appropriately, the Gardner chair is decorated with a chinoiserie scene on the splat.

Chinoiseries are fanciful pictorial evocations of oriental figures and daily life; rarely, however, are these depictions based on accurate models. This category of decoration enjoyed popularity in Italy into the second half of the eighteenth century.

Throughout the entire century, Italian furniture-makers commonly looked to French furniture forms for inspiration, but in the case of the Gardner chairs, it is probable that an English chair of 1720-30 served as a model.

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SMALL COMMODE Northern Italy, possible Venice, ca. 1750 Walnut, burl walnut, walnut veneers, and ivory; deal H: 30 7 /8" (78.5 cm); w. 16 1I4" (41.3 cm); d. 11 1I4" (28.6 cm) F21E17 PROVENANCE: Unknown The small elongated commode is of serpentine bombe form and rests on four squat cabriole legs. The center of the front apron is carved with a shell motif; molded bands are located above the legs, below the drawer, and at the top of the commode where the band forms a gallery. The door of the cupboard is decorated with veneers of burl walnut and a design in ivory of a bird on a scrolling branch that terminates in various flowers . The small drawer above is also decorated with scrolling vegetation in ivory, as is the top wh ere the design includes a cupid playing a lute.

The tapering profile and elongated proportions of this small commode mark it as a piece of northern Italian furniture. The city of Venice in particular is known for producing furniture with swelling forms, as in the Gardner commode, and often exaggerated silhouettes. The present commode, which probably dates from about 1750, is more restrained than the full-blown rococo furniture of the succeeding decade for which Venice is famous. Venetian case furniture of this period is frequently painted; polychrome floral swags on a pastel colored ground was a popular decorative scheme. It is less common at mid-century to find Venetian walnut-veneered furniture with ivory marquetry, and this choice of surface may point instead to a provincial origin in northern Italy.

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CANDELABRA(?) BASE Italy, Venice or fa~on de venise, early to mid-18th century Glass with painted decoration H: 12 1I4" (31 cm); diam. of base 10 1 /2" (26.7 cm) C26N41 PROVENANCE: Unknown The circularly ribbed round foot of the colorless glass base rises to a dome from which rises a stem with a waisted knop surmounted by a baluster knop with six tear drops. Above this is a 3-inch deep nozzle whose rim is everted, folded, and ground. The interior of the domed foot has been cold-painted with oil-based paint which is flaking. Depicted on the foot are eight men in chinoiserie costume each separated by gilt bands with leaf decoration. Floral decoration also appears along with some of the figures, which are painted in yellow, black, violet, pink, green, and orange-red.

Although previously published as a candlestick, the nozzle of this piece is much too deep to have held a candle (were a candle to burn below the rim of the nozzle it would explode the piece). Given the proportions of the object (the foot is nearly as wide as the entire piece is high) and the depth of the nozzle, It must have served as a base for another piece of glass. This was probably a candelabra with a long shaft (the deep nozzle acting as a counterfoil to keep the upper piece from being easily knocked off) and probably terminated in a single light, though a shaft with a light branch is also possible.

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CUP France, Paris, 1752-53 Silver MARKS: on underside of foot, M crowned (Warden's mark for 1752-53); a crowned fleur-de-lys, two grains, CC, a crozier (maker's mark for Charles Frarn;ois Croze); indecipherable mark. On foot rim, maker's mark repeated, indecipherable duty mark. On rim of cup, a hen's head (discharge mark for small work, 1750-56).

H: 4 5/8" (11.8 cm); diam. of rim: 4 7 /8" (12.4 cm) M21W2 PROVENANCE : acquired in Paris through Fernand Robert, 1892 The tulip- haped cut ha a flared rim and re t on a domed foot with ovolo decoration. The body of the cup i divided above the middle with an applied, molded band . Below the band the surface is matted with applied alternating trap of int rlacing. Above the band the surface is plain with a band of cha ed and matted interlaced foliage around the rim.

CUP France, Paris, 1729-30 Silver MARKS: on underside of foot, N crowned (Warden's mark for 1729-30); A crown on the side (charge mark for 1727-32); a crowned fleur-de-lys, two grains, DB (unidentified maker's mark). On foot rim: a hunting horn (countermark, 1768-75); two unidentified marks; maker's mark repeated.

PROVE A CE: acquired in Paris through Fernand Robert, 1892 The tulip- haped cup re ts on a domed foot with ovolo decoration. Th body of the cup is divided in the middle by an applied, molded band. Below the band th urface is matted, and decorated with applied trap in alternating pattern of ma k , interlacing, leaves, and strapwork within a leaf hape. Abov the band the urface i plain with a bord r of cha d and engraved lambrequins around the rim.

Small beakers or goblets such as these were favored in France for the service of wine. The design of these examples is conventional, and was repeated by numerous goldsmiths throughout the eighteenth century with only subtle stylistic variations.

The chief decorative elements--the applied straps on the body of the cup--recall the designs of Jean Bera in (1637-1711), which were disseminated throughout Europe in the form of printed patterns for craftsmen in many media. At least 350 of Berain's designs were published. One of Berain's most influential followers, Daniel Marot (1661-1752), who emigrated to Holland in 1684 or 1685, further popularized the style.

Although these two cups are twenty years apart in date, the design is essentially the same. Only the broader and looser treatment of the chased foliage on the rim of the cup on the left suggests its later date.

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CUP AND SAUCER .

France, Vincennes/Sevres factory, 1756 Soft-paste porcelain decorated in polychrome enamels and gold MARKS: interlaced Ls enclosing date letter D, painter's mark of Vincent Taillandier (active at Sevres, 1753-90) below, all in blue enamel H. of cup: 1 1/2" (3.8 cm); diam. of saucer 3 3/4" (9.5 cm) C18S13, C18S14 PROVENANCE: Unknown The circular cup is fitted with an ear-shaped handle; the saucer is in the shape of a shallow bowl.

Both are decorated with a turquoi se (bleu celeste) ground applied in a wavelike pattern. Sprays of polychrome flowers extend from each point of the pattern, and bands of gilt foliage follow the outlines of the blue ground.

This cup and saucer were made in the year that the porcelain factory at Vincennes, a town southeast of Paris, moved to new quarters at Sevres, located on the banks of . the Seine to the west of Paris. Founded about 1740, the factory began to produce porcelain on a significant scale in the late 1740s. The history of the factory was profoundly influenced by Louis XV. He granted Vincennes its first royal privilege in 1745, which served to handicap the factory's competitors, and he gradually acquired shares of stock in the factory, becoming the factory's sole owner in 1759.

The porcelain produced at Sevres became the most highly prized in Europe during the second half of the eighteenth century.

The extensive archival documents that survive at Sevres indicate that a specific title was assigned to each form. Gabe/et Bouret appears to be the name of this particular model of cup and saucer, one of many different types of cups and saucers made at Sevres. Gobelets Bouret were made in three different sizes and were first produced in 1753. They were often sold in groups of four or six, and were accompanied by one of several different models of tray.

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DECANTER AND TWO TUMBLERS Probably Italy, Venice, late 18th century Zwischengoldglass H: decanter: 11 1 /2" (29 cm); tumblers: 3 9/16 (9.1 cm) and 3 5/8" (9.2 cm) C26N46, C26N53, C26NSS PROVENANCE: Unknown The colorless glass decanter and tumblers are molded and decorated with zwischengoldglass decoration of trees and foliage and a boy chasing a butterfly with a net and a man at a mill on the tumblers; on the decanter is a hunting scene with a man, a hut, and three rabbits am id a landsca pe. The stopper of the decanter is blown. The rims of the tumblers have been gilt; the rim, the base of the neck, and the should er of the decanter have also been gi lt.

Zwischengoldglass (literally, gold between glass) was an ancient technique that was revived in central Europe during the early eighteenth century. In this technique a bottomless inner piece of glass is painted with gilt (sometimes silver) decoration.

Then a second glass is fitted around the first and the tops of the two pieces fused together. Glass like this decanter and tumblers was produced in Bohemia beginning in the 1730s and 1740s. Although the form of the pieces is Bohemian, the glass scholar Paul N. Perrot (correspondence in Museum files) thinks (based on the weakness of the gilding) that they were probably produced in Venice in the later eighteenth century either to complete an existing set or to take advantage of the popularity of the Bohemian ware at a time when Venice's traditional glass works were losing favor.

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FRUIT BASKET AND STAND England, Staffordshire or Yorkshire, ca. 1780 Lead-glazed earthenware (creamware) Marks: none H: of basket: 3" (7.6 cm); I. of stand: 10 3/ 4" (27.3 cm) C18S28, Cl8S29 PROVENANCE: Unknown The bombe basket is divided into eight panels, each decorated with a molded swag and pierced ornament. The shaped rim is molded with shells and reeding; the handles are composed of pierced scrolls and foliage. The oblong stand has a shaped flaring rim with mo lded shells and reeding along the border. The panels are pierced in geometric patterns.

The fine white wares known in England as creamware or "Queensware" were produced in numerous factories in Staffordshire, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, as well as other northern sites. There were at least thirty-five potteries in Yorkshire alone, and so many in the vicinity of Leeds that late nineteenth-century collectors often called the pottery "Leeds Ware." Creamware was less expensive than porcelain and the fineness of the clay recommended it over delft ware or pewter to the middleclass market. This object, like most creamware produced before about 1800, is unmarked, and it cannot be ascribed to a particular factory.

Fruit baskets such as this one were probably more decorative than functional.

Possibly supplied as part of a set, it would have been filled with fruit or sweetmeats for the dessert course. For a grand dinner, the center of the table would have been occupied by an epergne or Grand Platt Menage, a tall centerpiece composed of baskets and dishes arranged in symmetrical tiers filled with jellies, ices, sugared and fresh fruits, and nuts.

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JARDINIERE (planter) France, Paris, ca. 1790-1800 Hard-paste porcelain decorated in brown enamel and gold MARKS: none H: 9 1/8" (23.2 cm); diam. 13 1/8" (33.3 cm) C17E8 PROVENANCE: The Gardner Family The circular jardiniere rises from a stepped foot and is fitted with two applied ring handles. The body of the jardiniere is painted in brown monochrome with a continuous landscape that includes dogs attacking a wolf and a cowherd with his herd. The handles and the molded bands of the base and rim are entirely gilded . The base is decorated with a band of gilt bell flowers centered by circles with trailing foliage above and below. A drainage hole, the edge of which is glazed, is located in the center of the base.

Prints executed after works by well-known painters were widely circulated in the eighteenth century and were frequently copied or adapted by porcelain painters. The continuous landscape with which the planter is painted contains two primary scenes, each of which may have been inspired by a different print. The scene of the cowherd with his cattle is reminiscent of paintings by Dutch artists such as Paulus Potter (1625-54) or Aelbert Cuyp (1620-91); the hunting scene that includes four dogs attacking a wolf recalls the work of an artist such as the Eleming Frans Snyders (1579-1657).

While it is not known which of the various Paris porcelain factories produced the Gardner jardiniere, it is possible that it was made at the factory of the Due d' Angouleme which was operated by Dihl et Guerhard. A vase in the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris with decoration close in both style and subject matter bears the mark of this factory, and a tea service in the same museum is decorated with similar pastoral subjects which are relatively uncommon on late eighteenth-century French porcelain.

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BASIN Italy, late 18th/ early 19th century Tin-glazed earthenware MARKS: none Diam. 20" (Slcm) C15W6 PROVENANCE: Sangiorgi Gallery, Rome, 1895 The very large circular white basin has deep undulating gadroons on the base of the plate; its uneven rim has five deep oval indentations. The basin is decorated around the outer edge of the rim with a continuous foliate pattern painted in dark blue. At the center of the plate a raised ridge encircles a flat plane painted with a coat of arms. The arms consist of a shield painted in the same dark blue surmounted by an ochre crown. At the center of the shield, an ochre fleur-de-lys is painted above a brown horizontal bar under which appear three ochre vertical bars.

Faience (also known as maiolica) has been produced in Italy since the fourteenth century. This basin would originally have been accompanied by a ewer (a vaseshaped pitcher), which no doubt would have been as grand and ornate as this basin is. From the sixteenth century on, ewers paired with basins were part of table services of a grand stature and were used to wash the hands before and after dining.

They were made in a variety of media, silver being the most expensive. This basin's form was probably based upon metalwork models, as can be seen in the undulating design that reflects repousse or chase work on silver. Such conventional forms continued to be used over the course of centuries, and as this basin is unmarked it is impossible to attribute it with accuracy. This particular basin is too large to have been of practical use; it and its ewer were probably made in the eighteenth or nineteenth century as ceremonial decorations evoking the lavish services of earlier times .

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COFFEE AND TEA SERVICE Probably France, Paris, ca. 1810-1820 Hard-paste porcelain decorated entirely in gilding MARKS: none C1S42, C25Cll, C25C14, C25C2 PROVENANCE: Unknown The tall coffeepot has a stepped foot, a bulbous mid section, and a vertical neck which supports a flat lid surmounted by a cone finial. The pot is fitted with an ear-shaped handle and a spout in the form of a dragon's head. The similarly shaped milk jug has a tall ear-shaped handle and a gently everted spout. The bulbous cup has a flared rim and foot, and an applied foliate scroll handle. The deep saucer has broadly flaring sides. The coffeepot, milk jug, cup, and interior of the saucer are entirely gilded.

On the pot, jug, and cup, bands of low relief decoration above the foot and at the shoulder were not glazed before gilding; the resulting effect simulates gilt bronze. The low relief decoration, which varies on each piece, includes anthernion, rope twist, waterleaf, and guilloche bands. The pot, jug, and cup and saucer belong to a service that also includes a tea pot, a sugar bowl, a waste bowl, and six other cups and saucers.

Unlike the Sevres cup and saucer which is made of soft-paste or artificial porcelain, the components of this coffee and tea service are hard-paste or "true" porcelain.

Hard-paste porcelain was first produced in Europe in 1709 at the Meissen factory in Germany; it was not made in France until about 1770 when the Sevres factory began producing soft- and hard-paste simultaneously. By the end of the eighteenth century, hard-paste porcelain was the preferred ceramic body; not only did it have fewer impurities, but also it was whiter, thinner, and more economical to produce.

It is difficult to attribute this coffee and tea service to any particular factory; the

country of origin is even uncertain. The elongated forms, the arching foliate handles of the cups, and the overall gilt decoration point to a Paris origin, but Parisian services of this type were widely copied, especially in Belgium, Germany, and Russia . If the service was made in one of the Paris porcelain factories, it probably was made between 1810, the year in which this form of cup handle appears, and 1820, when entirely gilt services went out of fashion. A number of Parisian factories could have produced this service; a coffeepot of very similar form with the same spout made by the factory of Marc Schoelcher (1766-1832) is now in the Smithsonian. Equally, the bands of molded decoration found on each piece in the service may point to the Nast factory, which patented a mechanical method of producing low-relief borders in 1810. These bands give the impression of gilt bronze, an effect achieved by applying the gilding directly on biscuit porcelain rather than on areas already glazed.

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ARMCHAIR France, ca. 1810-20 Mahogany, mahogany veneers, gilt-bronze mounts, modern silk upholstery MARKS: stamped crowned Tin a circle; stamped C. W. Pat.; Tin ink on paper label H: 40 "(101.6 cm); w . 24" (61 cm); d. 21" (53.S cm) F21E7 PROVENANCE: Acquired in New York The armchair has a rectangular back, downswept arms decorated with stylized dolphin heads, and a bow-fronted seat supported by baluster legs in front and sabre legs in back. The frame is decorated with gilt-bronze mounts including a patera flank ed by palmettes on the top rail and front seat rail. The back, armrests, and seat are upholstered with a modem crimson and yellow silk.

Chairs produced in the last decades of the eighteenth century commonly have delicate frames with finely carved sculptural detail, and are usually either gilded or painted. In contrast, the chairs of the Empire period (1804-15) are often made of mahogany, bear little or no sculptural decoration, and have more substantial proportions. In addition, they are frequently decorated with gilt-bronze mounts which appear very rarely on chairs of the preceeding century. The gilt-bronze paterae and anthemia on the Gardner chairs reflect the heavy neoclassical vocabulary popular during the Napoleonic era. These motifs are echoed in the woven design of the silk coverings of the back, seat, and armrests, which reproduce the original fabric.

The Gardner chair, part of a suite that includes four side chairs and another armchair, is stamped underneath on a corner strut with a crowned T within a circle.

This mark, which also appears on the other chairs in the suite, was once interpreted as that used at the Tuileries, the principal residence of Napoleon that was destroyed in 1871. However, it is now believed that this mark was not used at either the Tuileries or at the Grand Trianon, a residence on the grounds of Versailles that was also used by Napoleon. The identity of the chateau that employed this particular stamp remains unknown, as does the significance of the other marks found on the underside of the Gardner chairs.

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PAIR OF VASES France, probably Sevres factory, probably 1860-80 Hard-paste porcelain decorated in polychrome enamels and gold; gilt-bronze mounts MARKS: both: Schilt in black enamel, probably for Frarn;ois-Philippe-Abel Schilt (active at Sevres, 1845-80) H: both vases: (with covers) 16 3/ 4" (42.S cm) PROVENANCE: Unknown The urn-shaped vase is supported on a stem with a beaded collar above a round foot with spiral fluting.

Two male masks are diametrically placed below the mid section. Below the gadrooned shoulder is a molded Greek key band, and a mock handle on either side is centered by a female mask. The stepped lid is fitted with a leaf and berry finial. The ground color is blue-green, the male masks and molded bands are picked out in ochre, and the middle register of each vase is decorated with cavorting putti carrying grapes on a white ground. Each vase rests on a gilt-bronze square stepped base with canted corners decorated with a guilloche band; the lid fits into a gilt-bronze collar also decorated with a guilloche band .

Neither of these vases bears a factory mark, but the signature Schilt that appears on each permits an attribution to the Sevres factory. Three members of the Schilt family worked as porcelain painters at Sevres in the nineteenth century. Two of them specialized in flowers; Frarn;ois-Philippe-Abel painted figures. The various motifs with which this vase is decorated, which include putti carrying vines of grapes and trelliswork entwined with grapevines, reinforce the Bacchic theme expressed by the drinking verse written on each vase.

Nous au! tres innocents Ne buvons que trop sans soif Saulter danser faire des tours boire vin blanc et vermeil furieux est, de bon sens, ne jouit Quiconque boit et ne s'en rejouit

We other innocents Only drink too much when not thirsty Jumping, dancing, going around Drinking wine white and rosy Mad is he, of good judgment, not to revel Whosoever drinks and doesn't enjoy it

En la Chaleur ce n'est qu' a boire droict et net. voire et du meilleur Nos Peres burent bien et Vidarent Jes pots Mouillez vous pour Seicher Ou Seichez vous pour Mouiller

In the heat there's nothing but drinking Straight and pure. Verily, and for the best Our fathers drank well And emptied their tankards Soak yourself for a drying Or dry yourself out for a soaking

The vases are notable for the distinctive combination of colors with which they are decorated. While the Sevres factory was known for the strong ground colors that it employed in the eighteenth century, such as turquoise, dark blue, and pink, the use of blue-green, ochre, lavender, and rose on the Gardner vases distinguishes them as products of the second half of the nineteenth century.

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