Two handed bowl: M.3-1928

Maker(s)

Maker: Laudin, Jacques I

Entities

• Two handed bowl
• Limoges painted enamels

Categories

• Enamels

Description

Copper, decorated with en grisaille and polychrome enamels and gilding. Cupid riding on a lion with inscription 'omnia.vincit amo' surrounded by stylized flowers and birds on a white ground; on the reverse, a cntral landscape, surrounded by stylized flowers and foliage on a black ground.

Copper, raised, and decorated in three techniques: painted en grisaille on a black ground and gilded; painted in blue, green, yellow, orange-red, pale manganese/mulberry, and black on a white ground; and enamelled in blue, turquoise, green, yellow, and mulberry over silver foils in a black ground, and gilded. The hexafoil bowl has lobed sides rising from an almost flat hexagonal base, and the stumps of two small S-shaped handles on opposing sides. In the middle framed by two gold lines is a hexagonal panel executed in grisaille on a black ground of Cupid riding on a lion walking to the left. Cupid has a quiver of gold arrows slung on his back by a gold strap, and controls the lion by means of a gold leash passing through its mouth. On the left and above is the inscription ‘.omnia.vincit amo’ in gold. On the low skyline below the lion there are two very small gold trees. The initials ‘•I•L•’ are inscribed in front of the lion’s rear left paw. The sides have a white ground painted with blue, pale mulberry, and red and yellow flowers, and green leaves on black stems, amongst which on three lobes is a fanciful bird. Round the rim is a black line with continuous scallops below.
On the base is a landscape with a mill house beside a pond. a path and a bridge on which is a red and gold man holding a staff. Behind the house there are trees, and two flocks of birds in the sky. The black sides are decorated in translucent enamels over foils with flowers with gold foliage, and, on two lobes, with an owl and a fanciful bird respectively.

Notes

History note: Professor James Dewar, FRS (1842–1923), 1 Scroope Terrace, Cambridge; Puttick & Simpson’s sale at the house, 26-27 May 1924, first day, part of lot 112; bought by Stanley Woolstan on behalf of Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, FRS (1848–1928), Trinity College, Cambridge

Legal notes

Dr J.W.L. Glaisher Bequest

Place(s) associated

• Limoges ⪼ Haute Vienne ⪼ France

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1928-12-07) by Glaisher, J. W. L., Dr

Dating

17th Century, second half#
Circa 1650 CE - 1695 CE

Note

Cupid riding a lion, emblematic of the power of Love occurs on several of the bowls. The inscription ‘omnia vincit amor’ was taken from Virgil’s Eclogues, X, 69, ‘omnia vincit Amor: et nos cedamus Amori.’ (Love conquers all; let us, too, yield to Love’). Hexafoil bowls with the same subject are in the Fitzwilliam (M.51-1904), Musée Municipal de l’Éveché, Limoges (Inv. 101); and bowls with circular rims in the Ashmolean Museum (OA 248); Victoria and Albert Museum (C.23-1923), and the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon (Inv. no. CA T 1322; acq. 1878) . Another, shape uncertain, was formerly in the Königliche Kunstkammer Berlin, (Inv. I.G.179 or K 5084), but was lost.

Small two-handled bowls or cups with hexafoil or circular rims have survived in large quantities. Most of them are decorated on the base with a landscape, surrounded by stylized flowers and birds in translucent enamels over foils in a black ground embellished with gold foliage. Others have floral decoration on a white ground.The central medallion inside may be of a religious, classical, or other secular subjects, and the interior sides are usually decorated with polychrome flowers and birds on a white ground in either a continuous band or in panels. Many of them bear the initials ‘.I.L.’ and these have usually been attributed to Jacques Laudin I (c. 1627-95), for example by Darcel and Marquet de Vasselot, although it is possible that some of them were executed by his nephew Jacques II Laudin (c. 1663-1729). However, the decoration of the reverse of the Fitzwilliam’s bowl, resembles that on other pieces attributed to Jacques I Laudin.