A PAIR OF MINTONS PATE-SUR-PATE PEACOCK BLUE VASES AND COVERS

DATE CYPHER FOR 1903, IMPRESSED UPPERCASE AND GILT CROWNED-GLOBE MARK, VARIOUS IMPRESSED CYPHERS, INCISED SHAPE NO. 1013, SIGNED L. SOLON

Details

Finely painted and hand-tooled in white slip, the first with Cupid dazzled by the sun in his hand against a background of stars, the second with Cupid holding a flaming brazier against a background of stylized smoke, the necks painted with gilt overlapping scales and with two upright wreath handles flanked by undulating ribbons, with conforming low domed covers with bud finials and square bases
16 3/4 in. (42.5 cm.) high


Lot Essay

The celebrated ceramic artist Marc Louis Solon came to England in late 1870 following the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. The Minton factory had, under the directorship of Léon Arnoux, acquired a reputation for attracting the most skilled craftsmen from leading porcelain factories on the Continent. Solon enjoyed a long and successful association with the Minton factory producing some of the manufactory's most memorable pieces, including numerous works displayed at the great expositions of the late 19th century. As U.S. Commissioner Blake observed in his Reports of the United States Commissioners to the House of Representatives following the 1878 Paris Exposition Universelle, three years prior to the present vases' completion, Solon's "work is incomparably superior to that of any of his imitators, far surpassing in art value the best examples of figure subjects from the kilns of Sèvres. He alone fully and satisfactorily unites skill in the technique of paste and glaze and the genius of sculptor and designer. His favourite subjects, as is well known, are the female form, Cupids and cherubs. He delights in illustrating the pranks Cupid plays with the hearts of maidens." For an exhaustive discussion of Solon's work at Minton, see B. Bumpus, Pâte-sur-Pâte, London, 1992, pp. 100-151.