Vase Japon

white covered porcelain vase with rust colored diamond pattern and a gold chain

Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
Gilded by Jean-Armand Fallot (active 1764–1790)
Vase Japon, 1774
Hard-paste porcelain; silver-gilt mounts
H. 10 1/2 in. (26.7 cm), diam. 8 in. (20.3 cm)
Purchase in honor of Anne L. Poulet, 2011 (2011.9.01)

A rare and beautiful vase created at the Sèvres porcelain manufactory was acquired in honor of Director Emerita Anne L. Poulet on the occasion of her retirement. The vase, a partial Frick purchase and a partial gift from Alexis and Nicolas Kugel, is the first piece of hard-paste Sèvres porcelain to enter the collection. It complements the museum’s substantial Sèvres holdings made with the earlier soft-paste formula, objects obtained by Henry Clay Frick from the dealer Joseph Duveen. This acquisition was particularly appropriate given Anne Poulet’s interest in eighteenth-century French decorative arts. In the winter of 2012, the vase was displayed alongside selections from a promised gift of hard-paste Meissen porcelain objects in the Portico Gallery.