Literature

This precious Sèvres porcelain model of shell is mounted with contemporary 18th century gilt-bronze to form a pot-pourri vase. The shape has become iconic in Sèvres studies, having been illustrated in books on the subject published in the last sixty years or so. The epitomise the 18th century love of rococo forms in the 1740s to 1760s and the excitement of treasures imported from Asia to Europe in that era.

Only six pairs of these shells, including this pair, are known to exist and these are the only pair with a green ground colour.  The form was made at Sèvres from 1763 to 1768 and copies 18th centuty Chinese porcelain shells imported into France.   The Parisian marchand-mercier Simon Poirier, a dealer in luxury furnishings, must have taken a Chinese example to the Sèvres porcelain factory to be copied as he is the only listed purchaser of this model of limaçon from 1763.  He would have then commissioned the bronze mounts which hold the lids open as pot pourri containers from a Parisian bronze maker.  Nine shells can be identifed in the Sèvres factory sales registers and we know 12 examples (just six pairs) in existence today.

This pair were surely in the collection formed by Baron Gustave de Rothschild (1829-1911), Avenue Marigny, Paris.  They and two other pairs with turquoise and dark blue grounds were subsequently in the collection of his grandson Sir Philip Sassoon (the dark blue pair purchased by Sir Philip) and his sister Sibyl, Marchioness of Cholmondeley.  Another dark blue pair was bought in Paris in the 1760s by the Earl of Coventry, of Croome Court, and remained in his descendants collection until 1991.   There are pairs with turquoise-blue grounds in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.