Sèvres - Lot 85

Sèvres Pair of ear vases in cookie soft porcelain. 18th century. H. 12.5 cm. Chips on the necks. Small cookie vases to accompany a dessert service appeared at Vincennes with Louis XV's Bleu Céleste service, which included 72 small vases in three sizes, 72 small baskets, 72 pedestals, 24 bobèches and 25 cookie figures. The first references to cookie ear vases appear in December 1758, in fourth and fifth sizes. In December 1758, the Marquise de Pompadour purchased six bisque ear vases for 18 livres each. These small cookie vases were used in many table settings until the end of the 18th century; for example, in 1771, the Countess du Barry bought nine cookie garland vases at 48 and 30 livres, 8 cookie ear vases, 4 goat's head vases at 54 livres and pedestals. The following year, King Louis XV also purchased 4 goat's head vases, 4 rectified garland vases, 4 ear vases and pedestals with scarves, all in cookie, most of the service delivered in January 1796 to the Venetian ambassador, Alvise Querini, now housed at the Querini Stampalia Foundation in Venice, also included ear and goat-head vases to accompany the bisque figures and groups (Elisabetta Dal Carlo, Le Porcellane dell' Ambasciatore, 1998, pp. 178-179). Despite the large number of small cookie vases sold by the factory in the 18th century, few examples are known today, including the three ear vases preserved in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence and published by Svend Eriksen (French Porcelain in Palazzo Pitti, 1973, n° 18 page 51).