Vase with cover (vase des âges) (one of a pair)

Two vases des âges in the Museum's collection are among the most significant pieces of Sèvres porcelain in a large and distinguished collection. Both vases represent the first or largest size of the vase des âges, measuring 19-1/2 inches high. This model was produced in three sizes, and the type of busts that serve as decorative handles varied according to size, with busts of bearded men found on examples of the first size. Both of the Museum's vases are decorated with a dark blue (beau bleu) ground, an elaborate figural scene (mignature) on the front reserve, and a back reserve depicting a large floral arrangement in a vase on a marble top. The two vases are decorated with identical patterns of gilding, composed predominantly of garlands of laurel leaves and elongated scrolls that encircle the neck and frame the oval reserves. Each vase bears the painter's mark of Charles-Nicolas Dodin (active at Sèvres 1754–1803) and the gilder's mark of Henri-Martin Prévost (active at Sèvres 1757–97). The vases appear to be further linked by the fact that not only is the primary reserve of each derived from a print after Jean-Michel Moreau (1741–1814), known as Moreau le jeune, but also because the prints in question were published as part of Moreau's Seconde Suite d'Estamptes, pour servir à l'Histoire des Modes et du Costume. However, the date-letters on the undersides of the bases indicate that thye were made six years apart. One vase (86.7.2a, b) is marked with the date letters 'ee' for the year 1782, while the other (86.7.1a, b) is marked with two 'll's, the date-letters for 1788.