Museum accessions

Magazine Antiques, March, 1998 by Eleanor H. Gustafson

While the over-all design of the tureen is attributed to Adrien Louis Marie Cavelier (1785-1867), the design of the cast winged victories that support the massive bowl is attributed to the renowned French history and portrait painter Pierre Paul Prud'hon (1758-1823), based on their similarity to other figures he designed. Executed by Odiot, one of the most celebrated European goldsmiths of the period, the tureen displays the smooth surfaces set off by applied cast figural elements that characterize his work in the classical revival style.

Odiot's work was sought by courts throughout Europe. He created table services for the nobility of France, Naples, Poland, Germany, and Russia, including the czar, and thus was well known to aristocrats such as the Count and Countess Branicki. Count Branicki had been awarded the rich province of Belaia Tzerkov in the Ukraine upon the ascension of Stanislaw Poniatowski to the Polish throne in 1764; his wife was a distinguished member of the Russian court and a trusted friend of Catherine the Great. Following Catherine's death in 1796, the Branickis retired to their estates at Belaia Tzerkov and Aleksandia, where the countess's skills were instrumental in greatly increasing their already considerable fortunes.

The Indianapolis Museum has also recently acquired three unusual pieces of French art nouveau ceramics: an earthenware charger by Clement Massier (1845-1917), a porcelain vase decorated by Leonard Gebleux (w. 1884-1928) for the Sevres factory, and the stoneware vase shown here. It was created by Edmond Lachenal, who specialized in both sculptural works and pieces decorated with naturalistic motifs that often overran the body of the piece, as here. His work is distinguished by velvety glazes, such as the so-called ocean blue of the Indianapolis vase, which dates from about 1900.

With these acquisitions, the museum can offer to the public splendid examples of the decorative arts of France anchored at both ends of the nineteenth century.

According to tradition, on the occasion of his baptism on April 5, 1732, George Washington was given a pair of small silver cups, one of which has recently been presented to the Charleston Museum. The cup bears the mark of the Scottish silversmith Alexander Kincaid, who is first recorded in Edinburgh in 1692 and whose latest known piece dates from 1734. Engraved on the front of the cup are Washington's initials and "JS," but it is not known to whom the latter refer. The pair of cups is believed to have descended in Washington's family until the late 1800s, when they were sold to the Philadelphia neurologist and poet Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, a collector of early American memorabilia. Presumably they were separated at the sale of his estate earlier in this century. The present whereabouts of the second cup is unknown to the Charleston Museum's staff, who would be delighted to hear from readers who might know of it.