cuvette Verdun thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Ceramics, Room 139, The Curtain Foundation Gallery

cuvette Verdun

Flower Holder
1760 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Flower vase or trough in soft-paste porcelain of undulating profile with a fixed central longitudinal division and scrolling leaf handles, decorated with a turquoise blue ground reserved with a tavern scene painted in enamels, edged with gilded patterns.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Titlecuvette Verdun (manufacturer's title)
Materials and techniques
Soft-paste porcelain, applied with a ground colour, painted in enamels, gilded
Physical description
Flower vase or trough in soft-paste porcelain of undulating profile with a fixed central longitudinal division and scrolling leaf handles, decorated with a turquoise blue ground reserved with a tavern scene painted in enamels, edged with gilded patterns.
Marks and inscriptions
  • crossed Ls mark enclosing date letter G for 1760 ('G' was formerly thought to denote 1759 or 1759-60 (see Peters reference))
  • mark of painter Vielliard
Credit line
Bequeathed by John Jones
Object history
See pair to this vase 754-1882
Production
This shape is listed as a 'vase' (or 'cuvette') 'à fleurs Verdun' in the factory records
Subjects depicted
Bibliographic references
  • Carey, Juliet. Peasants on porcelain: Sèvres and the taste for Teniers. Oliver Fairclough, John Whitehead and Aileen Dawson eds. French Porcelain Society Journal III , 2007. pp. 111-130 ISSN 1479-8042
  • King, William. Catalogue of the Jones Collection, II, Ceramics, ormolu, goldsmiths' work, enamels, sculpture, tapestry, books, and prints. Victoria and Albert Museum: 1924. 18 p., no. 116, ill. plate 6.
  • Peters, David. An examination of Vincennes and early Sèvres date letters. The French Porcelain Society, A transcript of the talk given at the French Porcelain Society Study Day on 17 June 2014. London, 2014. Following a detailed analysis of the records against existing pieces, Peters has suggested 'G’ is now for 1760, not 1759-60 as formerly thought.
  • Savill, Rosalind. The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, 3 vols. London: Trustees of the Wallace Collection, 1988. See Vol 1, pp. 97-100, for a discussion of a vase of this shape (called a vase 'à compartiments' or 'Choisy'), and an example in the Wallace Collection C226. (See Froissart below for a more recent examination of this and similar shapes, linking this one convincingly to the name 'cuvette Verdun'). See vol III, Appendix I Designers, shareholders, dealers for details of the marquis de Courteille pp. 974-5, and pp. 988-9 for Jean-François Verdun de Monchiroux, fermier-général , and original shareholder in Vincennes-Sèvres, after whom this shape is named.
  • Cyrille Froissart, Des Cuvettes Démasquées . Lecture given at The French Porcelain Society Study Day, 17 June 2014. Illustrated p. 16. For full illustrated text in English see: http://web.archive.org/web/20221208153231/http://www.cyrillefroissart.com/fr/fiche.php3?id_article=4913
Collection
Accession number
754A-1882

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Record createdFebruary 10, 2010
Record URL
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