Porcelain: China, Qing dynasty, Yongzheng period (1723-1735).
Mounts in gilded bronze: France, 18th century, circa 1750-1760.
Baluster-shaped central vase: H. 28 cm. (11 in.); W. 21.6 cm. (8 ½ in.); D. 12.5 cm. (5 in.).
Two “Cong”-type vases: H. 20 cm. (8 in.); W. 18 cm. (7 in.); D. 18 cm. (7 in.).
PROVENANCE: collection of Baron Guy de Rothschild (1909-2007) and Baroness Marie-Hélène de Rothschild (1927-1996), in the library of the Hôtel Lambert, located at 2 rue Saint-Louis-en-l’Île, Paris; by descent, the Rothschild collection up to the present day.
LITERATURE: Alexandre Serebriakoff. Portraitiste d’intérieurs, catalogue of the exhibition held at the Musée National des Châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau, Société des Amis de Malmaison, 1994.
This exceptional and very rare set of three vases mounted in Chinese porcelain with ‘moonlight’ glaze from the Yongzheng period (1723-1735) was part of the collections of Baron Guy de Rothschild (1909-2007) and Baroness Marie-Hélène de Rothschild (1927-1996). They placed them in the library of the Hôtel Lambert in Paris, as can be ascertained from a watercolour painted in 1983 by the famous Russian-born interior portraitist Alexandre Serebriakoff (1907-1994) (Ill. 1, Ill. 2). The three vases have remained in the Rothschild family’s possession ever since.
Porcelains with monochrome “petit bleu” or ‘light blue’ glazes, also known as ‘moonlight’, were extremely rare in the eighteenth century and consequently very much in demand and valued at particularly high prices. Several of them, were sold between 1748 and 1758 by Duvaux and mentioned in his Livre-Journal published in 1873 by Louis Courajod.
