Research:
Of papier maché, black lacquer. Of baluster form with flared neck. The whole decorated with compartments containing vignettes of exotic birds and flowers in imitation of cloissoné work.
Provenance:
Sold Sotheby’s Monaco, 9 December 1990, Lot 926
US Private Collection
Papier maché is believed to have originated in China as early as 200 BC, where paper sheets for writing had already been developed, and made its way via the Arab world to Europe by the 10th century, with the first paper documents in Italy dating to the mid-1200s. The technique was “gradually improved for the sophisticated, japanned furniture and domestic objects made in the 18th and 19th centuries,” and papier maché became an example of the diversification of materials and technology that defined furniture and decoration in the nineteenth century throughout Europe.
The Italian preference for Eastern decoration began with the expansion of trade with China, leading to intensified taste for chinoiserie throughout Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Designers and architects to the court created interiors that drew heavily on exotic styles based on the ceramics, furniture, and paintings imported from the East; and by the eighteenth century these items were being produced at home. The black lacquer decoration of the present vases, which are of unprecedented scale, is replete with auspicious Chinese symbolism.
Full research report available on request.