A 19th-century French chromolithograph of three Sèvres porcelain pieces on a deep royal blue ground, from Édouard Garnier's celebrated study of Sèvres soft-paste porcelain. At the center stands a covered vase with tall rope-twist handles and a gold laurel border, its oval reserve painted with a pastoral trophy of a birdcage, straw hat, basket, and garden tools tied with a pink ribbon. Flanking it are two ewers, each banded with white reserves of rose and cornflower garlands caught up in ribbon bows, above gilt fluted bases. The rich blue against the gold and soft florals gives the plate real elegance. It is framed in gilt modern frame with a rope twist edge and a beaded inner border, and it is lovely over a console, in a dining room, or grouped with blue and white.
Chromolithography was the finest color printing process of the 19th century. Each color was drawn by hand onto its own limestone block, and the sheet was pressed against every stone in turn, sometimes a dozen or more, with each impression aligned precisely over the last. Here the gold was printed in metallic ink so it catches the light as gilding would.
- Origin: France
- Age: Late 19th century (Circa 1880)
- Medium: Chromolithograph with metallic gold on paper
- Details: Sèvres covered vase and two ewers on a royal blue ground with floral garlands and a pastoral trophy; gilt frame with rope twist and beaded edge, glazed
- Dimensions: 18.5 by 13.5
- Condition: Good antique condition with light toning to the paper consistent with age.
