A Gilt-Bronze And Porphyry Presse-papier, Modelled As a Term Of Madame de Pompadour

Description

A Louis XV/XVI Period Gilt-Bronze and Porphyry Presse-Papier, Modelled as a Term of Madame de Pompadour

The term figure finely cast in gilt-bronze atop an Egyptian porphyry base. Her head turned slightly to dexter above classically robed bust. Atop a entrelac cast volute laurel wreath attribute, titled ‘MADAME DE POMPADOUR / 1721 – 1764’

France, late 18th century.

The present model derives from the series of small biscuit figures in the form of classical terms produced at the Manufacture de Sèvres between 1769 and 1780. The series included allegorical figures of the Four Seasons and classical deities, and the present type closely follows their distinctive term-form composition.¹

The models by Sèvres illustrated in E. Bourgeois and G. Lechevalier-Chevignard, Le Biscuit de Sèvres: recueil des modèles de la manufacture de Sèvres au XVIIIe siècle, plate 17.

The models are associated with Jean-Jacques Bachelier (1724–1806), who worked at Vincennes and Sèvres from 1748 and was appointed artistic director of the Manufacture in 1751. He was subsequently responsible for the sculpture workshop from 1766 until 1773, following the departure of Étienne-Maurice Falconet for Russia.²

Portrait of Jean-Jacques Bachelier 1782, by Labille-Guiard, Adélaïde (1749-1803), Musée du Louvre INV 27038, © GrandPalaisRmn (Musée du Louvre)

The gilt-bronze version appears to reproduce the Sèvres prototype, retaining its characteristic form while incorporating additional gilt-bronze ornament in the form of the fringed drapery and oak leaves at the base. A closely related gilt-bronze term of Louis XV, apparently conceived as the companion to the present figure, is documented in the literature and was formerly in the collection of René Fribourg (1880–1963), subsequently Edward and Kiyi Pflueger. It was sold from the Irene Roosevelt Aitken Collection, Christie’s, New York, 12 February 2026, lot 297.³

The bust of Louis XV as a Herm figure, dated 1772. from the Irene Roosevelt Aitken Collection, (Christie’s / Public Domain)

A further related pair of gilt-bronze terms representing Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, similarly mounted on porphyry plinths and incorporating oak-leaf ornament, was sold from the Estate of Mrs Charles W. Engelhard, Christie’s, New York, 18 March 2005, lot 296.³

The typology is consistent with the broader French eighteenth-century use of the term and caryatid figure in gilt bronze. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, for example, records a pair of French gilt-bronze caryatids as 18th century, demonstrating the established use of the form within French decorative metalwork of the period.⁴

Pair of 18th century gilt-bronze caryatids – Met Museum, Object Number: 07.225.510.317a, b, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1906.

Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (1721–1764), became the official maîtresse-en-titre of Louis XV in 1745 and remained an influential figure at court after their intimate relationship ended in 1751. An influential advisor and a major patron of the arts, she was portrayed by François Boucher and Jean-Marc Nattier and sculpted by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle.

References

¹  É. Bourgeois and G. Lechevallier-Chevignard, Le Biscuit de Sèvres: recueil des modèles de la manufacture de Sèvres au XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1913, pls. 17–18; see also Christie’s, Terme en bronze doré représentant le buste de Louis XV, France, seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle, for the related gilt-bronze term and discussion of the Sèvres term series.

²  On Bachelier’s career at Vincennes and Sèvres and his role as artistic director and head of the sculpture workshop, see J.-J. Bachelier, Mémoire historique sur la Manufacture nationale de porcelaine de France, Paris, 1781; and Larousse, ‘Jean-Jacques Bachelier’.

³  Christie’s, New York, 12 February 2026, The Irene Roosevelt Aitken Collection, lot 297; Christie’s, New York, 18 March 2005, Property from the Estate of Mrs. Charles W. Engelhard, lot 296.

⁴  The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, ‘Pair of caryatids’, French, 18th century, gilt bronze, acc. nos. 07.225.510.317a–b.