A Sèvres porcelain fond flammé silver-mounted vase, the porcelain 1884, the mounts by Boin-Taburet, Paris, circa 1880-1890

With Laurent Chalvignac, Paris, from whom acquired 21 January 2015

The glaze on this vase, described as ‘flambé’ or ‘flammé’ in Europe, was inspired by Chinese yaobian glazes of the eighteenth century, created by firing copper oxides in a reducing or oxygen-starved kiln atmosphere. The glazes on the Chinese wares were greatly admired during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and various European factories sought to emulate them as part of a move to create innovative new pieces with less of an emphasis on traditional painted decoration. In 1882, a French diplomat collected raw materials and recipes from Jingdezhen and brought them back to be examined at the Sèvres factory. The first successful firing of a flammé glaze at Sèvres was achieved the following year by the factory’s principal chemist, Georges Vogt. An 1884 Sèvres ‘vase de Mycène’, designed by Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse and decorated with a similar flammé glaze, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (museum no. 54-1885).