Edouard Lievre Vases

An antique French Baccarat glass vase with a fluted mouth. The vase is adorned with hand painted floral and foliage motifs in the Asian man...

Ancient solid bronze vase with Chinese or Japanese elephants

Ferdinand Barbedienne, A French Ormolu and Champleve Enamel Jardiniere, C. 1870, The Design Attributed to Louis Constant Sevin. An exceptional qualit...

A fine pair of French 19th century Rococo Revival style gilt bronze and Rouge Griotte marble six-light candelabra attributed to Ferdinand Barbedienne (French, 1810-1892) After a mode...

Beautiful and unique Chinese bronze cast archaic style ritual vessel or vase. This beautiful piece is ornate in design with simple lines. The vessel stretches outwards while keeping ...

Ferdinand Barbedienne, An Exquisite Suite of Three French Ormolu and Champleve Enamel Jardinieres / Garniture C. 1870, The Design Attributed to Louis Constant Sevin. Comprising of t...

This pair of French Empire vases date from the 19th century and are of exceptional quality. Unfortunately one of the cut crystal vase has been crac...

Pair of circa 1930's bronze Chinese vases depicting dragons. Measurements: Height: 10" Diameter: 6"

Ferdinand Barbedienne, A French Ormolu and Champleve Enamel Jardiniere, C. 1870, The Design Attributed to Louis Constant Sevin. An exceptional qualit...

Pair of large Japanese Porcelain Cone Shape Vases with Imari decoration Important mounts in ormolu and gilded metal, the base decorated with a laurel wreath, the upper part of falling leaves and a frieze of knotted ribbon. The mounts signed Gagneau, 115 R. Lafayette. Circa 1860 With their original aluminium bulb cover and original gilding Vase it self Height 47 cm The Gagneau Company is one of the most famous lighting factories in Paris in the nine-teenth century, established in 1800 at 25 rue d'Enghien in Paris and later at 115 rue de Lafayette. She has participated in many exhibitions throughout this century. She began in 1819 with the Exposition des Produits de l'Industrie and later participated in the Universal Exhibitions where she was part of the jury in the category of art bronzes (class 25) at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1889. "Imari" was simply the trans-shipment port for Arita wares, from where they went to the for-eign trading outposts at Nagasaki. It was the kilns at Arita which formed the heart of the Japanese porcelain industry. Arita's kilns were set up in the 17th century, after kaolin was discovered in 1616. A popular legend attributes the discovery to an immigrant Korean potter, Yi Sam-Pyeong (1579–1655), although most historians consider this doubtful. After the discovery, some kilns began to produce revised Korean-style blue and white porcelains, known as Early Imari, or "Shoki-Imari". In the mid-17th century, there were also many Chinese refugees in northern Kyushu due to the turmoil in China, and it is said that one of them brought the overglaze enamel coloring technique to Arita. Thus Shoki-Imari developed into Ko-Kutani, Imari, and later Kakiemon, which are sometimes taken as a wider group of Imari wares. Ko-Kutani was produced around 1650 for both export and domestic market.Kutani Ware is characterized by vivid green, blue, purple, yellow and red colors in bold designs of landscapes and nature. Blue and white porcelain pieces continued to be produced and they are called Ai-Kutani. Ko-Kutani Imari for the export market usually adopted Chinese design structure such as kraak style, whereas Ai-Kutani for the domestic market were highly unique in design and are ac-cordingly valued very much among collectors. Ko-Kutani style evolved into Kakiemon-style Imari, which was produced for about 50 years around 1700. Kakiemon was characterized by crisp lines, and bright blue, red and green designs of dramatically stylized floral and bird scenes. Imari achieved its technical and aes-thetic peak in the Kakiemon style, and it dominated the European market. Blue and white Kakiemon is called Ai-Kakiemon. The Kakiemon style transformed into Kinrande in the 18th century, using underglaze blue and overglaze red and gold enamels, and later additional colors. Imari began to be exported to Europe when the Chinese kilns at Jingdezhen were damaged in the political chaos and the new Qing dynasty government halted trade in 1656–1684. Ex-ports to Europe were made through the Dutch East India Company, and in Europe the des-ignation "Imari porcelain" connotes Arita wares of mostly Kinrande Imari. Export of Imari to Europe stopped in mid-18th century when China resumed export to Europe, since Imari was not able to compete against Chinese products due to high labor costs. By that time, however, both Imari and Kakiemon styles were already so popular among Eu-ropeans that the Chinese export porcelain copied both, a type known as Chinese Imari. At the same time, European kilns, such as Meissen and English potteries such as Johnson Bros. and (Royal) Crown Derby, also imitated the Imari and Kakiemon styles. Export of Imari surged again in late 19th century (Meiji era) when Japonism flourished in Europe.Thus, in the western world today, two kinds of true Japanese Imari can...

Signed F. Barbedienne A pair of charming trumpet-shaped vases in gilt bronze with a polychrome cloisonné enamel decoration, one blue and the other green and red. They feature two annular handles and stand on four feet surmounted by a stylized palm. The vases are ornated with a Byzantine decoration. The high quality of the enamel is typical of Barbedienne’s production. It enhances this pair of vases especially with the wide range of colours used to create the decoration. The enamel is smooth and shiny and shows many shades to form the Byzantine decoration. The partitioned cloisonné is finely engraved and contributes to the decoration by adopting vegetal and foliage shapes. The Model These two vases can be linked to a vase presented by Ferdinand Barbedienne at the 1862 London Universal Exhibition and purchased at this time by the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Inv. 8026-1862). This vase has on its belly a polychrome cloisonné enamel decoration standing out against a turquoise background as show these vases. This decoration, called Byzantine, covers all the vase with coloured arabesques and scrolls. It rests on four claw feet with lion heads from a design near of our vases. Barbedienne and the Cloisonné Enamel Ferdinand Barbedienne continously innovated and he revived the use of enamel on art works during the second half of the 19th century. The Sèvres Manufacture enamel workshop had ever tried it in 1854-1855, but Barbedienne was the one who succeeded to join enamel to an industrial decorative objects production. From 1858 “At Mr Barbedienne’s, enamels in copper ornaments have got their former prestige back” (Les bronzes de la Maison Barbedienne, C. Simon, in L’Art du XIXe siècle, 1858, n°21, p. 252). The Barbedienne Company had now an enamel workshop where objects ornamented with oriental style or medieval style enamels were made. Four years after, Barbedienne’s cloisonné...

Wonderfully detailed bronze Chinese dragon vase, circa mid-20th century.