Hunters

Country: France

Manufacture: Old Paris

Date of establishment: early twentieth century

Height (cm): 20

PORCELAIN STORY

You know, my friends, in the world of porcelain collecting everything is so strongly and long ago mixed up that, probably, even from my daily columns you could notice how often I found Spanish figurines in Scotland, and English figurines in Portugal, and Italian figurines in Australia, and Scandinavian figurines in America. But most often, strange as it may sound, I found various strange and rare compositions in my native Kiev.

I bought these two unusually beautiful works at one of the Kiev gatherings of collectors. Moreover, they were brought from Spain. And the interest of porcelain connoisseurs caused a great deal of interest, because exactly the same pair of the famous French manufactory began to produce in the early 19th century. And then repeatedly resumed their production due to the fact that they continued to enjoy a noticeable demand. Especially for collectors and lovers of... of perfumed fragrances.

Yeah, yeah, you heard right. I, too, thought at first that these two marvelous figures were hunting-themed -- that's all. No, it turns out they're not. It turns out that both of these figurines are porcelain perfume bottles designed to accompany their noble owner on a hunt or other journey. Incense and fragrance vessels began to be used thousands of years ago, as far back as ancient Mesopotamia. And from there they were spread in Egypt, Greece, Rome and other Mediterranean countries. Moreover, if at first the bottles for aromatic oils had rather simple forms and were made of ceramics and glass, then later on ceramic vessels began to apply images of birds, animals, warriors. Even later, Greek and Roman craftsmen began to give these bottles the form of sculptures and even scenes.

When the first porcelain manufactories appeared in Europe, they immediately set up the production of single copies of sculptural vessels for perfumery. Such products were fabulously expensive and could only be afforded by monarchs and nobles close to the court. When on the excursion in the Versailles Palace we were told how the royal court moved to Versailles for the summer with all their belongings and servants, it was not difficult to imagine an endless succession of parade coaches and carriages, which sometimes stretched so far that the front coaches were already entering Versailles, and the last ones were just leaving the royal palace in Paris. And, naturally, porcelain perfume bottles were created for these journeys.

By the way, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and in the museum of the Meissen manufactory in Germany, we have seen the same unique bottles in the form of handmade statuettes. Now we have them in our collection as well.