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Tutte le aste / Altro / Emile Gallé - Jardinière - Faience - Heraldic jardinière...
Émile Gallé — Heraldic jardinnière in faience with the arms of Charles Langton Massingberd, whose original Gallé heraldic design from 1871 is preserved in the Musée d’Orsay. This unique and exclusive piece stands as a magnificent and legitimate testimony to Gallé’s original and historicist phase: the indisputable master of French decorative arts in the 19th century and founder of the renowned Nancy School, unanimously recognized as one of the pivotal figures of the Art Nouveau movement. The jardinière presented here is distinctive as a one-off piece, commissioned by the wealthy Massingberd family of Gunby, England. Following exhaustive research, the relationship and provenance of this piece have been verified, and evidence is provided of the Massingberd family’s official motto (“Est Meruisse Satis”) and their heraldic shield. There is documented evidence regarding the heraldic decoration of this jardinière and official proof of the design of the Charles Langton Massingberd arms by Émile Gallé in 1871: a pencil, ink and watercolor drawing that is currently preserved at the Musée d’Orsay. (A photo is included in the piece’s photographic gallery and referenced in the investigated sources.) Its execution in blue grand feu camaïeu on white tin glaze also has documented precedents in Gallé’s faience production since 1867, including the decoration of armorial pieces. The Musée d’Orsay records Gallé’s activity designing armorial service wares from 1867, with models nominally destined for specific families and, in several cases, documentarily linked to Saint-Clément. Gallé did not merely produce generic ceramic decoration; he designed individualized heraldic repertoires for specific services and transmitted execution instructions to the workshop. This information is an excerpt from John Burke’s book “A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, Enjoying Territorial Possessions or High Official Rank But Uninvested with Heritable Honours” (Details are included in the piece’s photographic gallery). THE JARDINIÈRE — SERVICE HÉRALDIQUE (Heraldic Service) These costly fine-ware jardinières were intended to preside over dining rooms or salons of high lineage, filled with fresh flowers as a display of status. The piece already announces the conceptual universe of Gallé’s Heraldic Service series, presented with resounding success at the Paris Universal Exposition of 1878, where the master of Nancy earned four medals in different disciplines. However, this jardinière presents typological features that elevate it beyond ordinary series tableware. Distinguishing features I will describe in the following sections and document in the photographic gallery. • FORMAL DESCRIPTION OF THE PIECE: The piece is a fine faience jardinière glazed in blue on a white tin-glaze ground, raised on four curved legs with integrated side handles. Its sinuous silhouette and ornamental elements display a pronounced historicist character, inspired by Rocaille or Louis XV. This language reinterprets, from the neobaroque sensibility of the 19th century, the curves and ornamental exuberance of the eighteenth-century repertoire. On this historicist structure, heraldic decoration is articulated, reinterpreting a traditional repertoire through blue camaïeu. The decoration is entirely hand-painted using the grand feu blue camaïeu over white tin-glaze, a characteristic technique of Émile Gallé’s ceramic production. The blue, applied in varying intensities, yields a monochrome decoration of notable tonal richness, from dense, deeply saturated strokes to lighter, diluted areas. THE HERALDIC COMPOSITION The ceramic composition closely corresponds to Gallé’s 1871 drawing, held by the Musée d’Orsay under the title Blason aux armes de Charles Langton Massingberd. The museum expressly identifies the work as an armory and heraldic design, drawn in pencil, ink, and watercolor, and in comparison they share the same concept of the two helmets, the arrangement of their figures, the surrounding band, the buckle and the heraldic fittings depicted on We are looking at the ceramic transcription of a specific Gallé design related to the Massingberd arms. The heart of the piece is the Massingberd shield, whose heraldic program occupies the jardinière’s front. The composition is organized by a broad scroll or ornamental strap that envelops the arms. The strap appears with its buckle and studs, and upon it the family motto Est meruisse satis unfolds. Inside this element sit the two helmets of Massingberd: on the left, a dragon’s head erased between two azure wings; on the right, a lion’s head erased charged with two broad argent arrows in saltire. In the jardinière, these elements — crests, motto, scroll, buckle and hardware — are translated into blue camaïeu, so the original blazon’s metals (gold, red, blue, and silver) are not reproduced chromatically but interpreted by modulating tone with varying blues on a white background. Thus, the richness of the blazon’s prescribed colors is reinterpreted through blue camaïeu without losing the graphic differentiation of the various figures. • THE CRESTS The left crest corresponds, according to heraldic description by John Burke, to a dragon’s head erased, quarterly, or and gu, between two wings azur. (First Crest, a dragon’s head erased, quarterly, or and gu. between two wings az.) The right crest, to a lion’s head erased azure, charged on the neck with two broad argent arrows in saltire, with gold beard and between four gouttes d’eau. (Second Crest, a lion’s head erased, charged with two broad arrows in saltire, arg. barbed or, between four gouttes d’eau.) • “Est Meruisse Satis” The motto is officially registered and linked to the Massingberd family, of Gunby. • Brushstroke. Heraldic decoration belongs to an early stage of Gallé’s ceramic production and has documented parallels in pieces dated around 1878–1880. Visually, the design breaks classic rigidity with the fluid asymmetry of a free, expressive brushstroke. The piece’s visual power rests on masterful cobalt blue usage. The painter’s stroke is vibrant, loose, and full of nuance. Variations in blue load create contrasts between zones of high intensity and others more transparent, producing subtle gradations and intensities that capture light uniquely. The animals are not mere static symbols; they have claws, movement, and in each blue brushstroke one can breathe the genius and poetic sensibility that would later immortalize the master of Nancy. The piece represents a particularly characteristic synthesis of Gallé’s historicist ceramic production, in which form, ornamentation, and iconography are integrated into a single composition. • PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION / THE ABSOLUTE RARITY OF THE MOTO This jardinière embodies the physical realization of an exclusive commission, conceived outside industrial production channels or the open catalogs of the workshop. The explicit presence of the two crests and the family blazon frame an object of the highest range that meets the aesthetic and decorative needs of this British landed family. The presence of the scroll bearing the full motto “EST MERUI SSE SATIS” crowns the exceptional nature of this work. Whereas the workshop’s common commercial production repeatedly used local mottos and standard heraldic lores such as Nancy’s famous “Non Inultus Premor,” the use of this moral maxim from the Lincolnshire lineage confirms we are dealing with an exclusive piece. The jardinière itself testifies to a convergence of Gallé’s technical refinement and the identity of a great British family in a unique work that fuses grand-fire enamel mastery with the rigorous historical identity of a specific patron, in a borderless artistic dialogue. HISTORICAL VALUE AND EXCEPTIONALITY: Émile Gallé’s armorial porcelain is considerably rarer than his glass production. This piece represents an early stage of Gallé’s ceramic production, which would later lose prominence to glass. In terms of collecting, surviving pieces are older and rarer compared to Gallé’s later ceramic productions — such as the iconic jardinières with exed rosettes decorated with lakeside landscapes — which evolved toward a painterly naturalism. DATATION: DOCUMENTED GALLÉ–MASSINGBERD CONNECTION The jardinière’s dating is formally constrained to circa 1871, defined by Don Jean Bourgogne and his wife, and by Gallé’s own artistic trajectory in Nancy and the official genealogical line connecting Gunby Hall’s lands with the production window of the jardinière. The chronology is structured as follows: • Peregrine Langton (later Peregrine Langton Massingberd, 1780-1838): married in 1802 to heiress Elizabeth Mary Anne Massingberd, adopting the family’s arms to preserve the properties. They had one younger son: • Charles Langton Massingberd (23 April 1815 – 9 February 1887): The key historical figure tied to this piece, associated with Gallé’s 1871 drawing. Charles inherited Gunby after his nephew Algernon disappeared in South America. He bore no hereditary British noble title nor knighthood (Sir). His social rank and official status were Esquire (Esq.), a position reserved in England for landed gentry without titled honors. Historically and socially, he was formally recognized as: Squire of Gunby Hall (Lord of the Estate) — as the rightful heir to the lands and heritage, exercising the traditional role of Squire — and Army Officer, having served in his youth as an officer in the Austrian Army’s 5th Hussars. • Musée d’Orsay inv. ARO 1986 223 130.: preserves a pencil, ink and watercolor drawing of Charles Langton Massingberd’s Coat of Arms by Emile Gallé, dated 1871 and measuring 11.1 cm high by 13.3 cm wide. The piece was donated to the museum by Don Jean Bourgogne (grandson of Emile Gallé) and his wife, in 1986. • 1873–1875: Charles Langton Massingberd served as Squire of Gunby Hall precisely during Gallé’s consecration. In 1873, a ambitious remodeling of the mansion commenced, building the North Wing. AUTHENTICITY: • The piece bears on its base a handwritten blue signature “E. Gallé Nancy,” which itself serves as an indelible authenticity certificate. • The jardinière reproduces the exact composition of Gallé’s drawing preserved at the Musée d’Orsay, featuring the Charles Langton Massingberd shield. • Verified Massingberd of Gunby family documentation. DIMENSIONS • Width including handles: 23 cm • Interior diameter: 22 cm • Height: 11 cm CONDITION General very good condition with natural wear from use and the passage of time, which is completely acceptable and typical in ancient ceramic pieces. There are glaze losses (craquelure) on the upper lip and on the handles consistent with its nearly 150-year age, which highlight the beauty of its red clay and thus reinforce its dating and authenticity. No restorations. ADDITIONAL NOTES • The photographs are part of the description. • Shipping dimensions and weight: the final measurements and weight indicated strictly correspond to a secure packing configuration essential to guarantee the integrity of this unique 19th-century piece.
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