The earthenware vase in shades of cobalt blue and off-white is worth its weight in gold.
70,000 euros very precisely.
A small fortune for the modest municipal museum of Chartreuse, in Douai (Hauts-de-France).
The piece dating from the years 1680-1686 was invited last year in the galleries of the museum.
She slipped between two similar vases, sister earthenware, taller and more imposing, from the same workshop in Delft where they were born.
However, a shadow hangs over this family reunion: it is only a loan.
To acquire the youngest, 20,000 euros are still missing at the Chartreuse museum.
To discover
Discover the “Best of the Goncourt Prize” collection
Read alsoA print of
Violon d'Ingres
by Man Ray becomes the most expensive photograph ever sold
"We found ourselves with a masterpiece that it is impossible for us not to acquire as it resonates perfectly with our collections"
, explains for
Le Figaro
Guillemette Lagarde, deputy director of the Chartreuse museum and its Grand Siècle art fund.
The situation is funny.
A Dutch specialist reports in 2021 to Pierre Bonnaure, the director of the museum, the presence of this admirable 17th century vase-bottle in a Madrid auction.
The Charterhouse of Douai cannot let slip the object.
She invites herself incognito to the auction.
Poorly recognized, the vase is valued at 1200-1500 euros.
A boon.
However, the case eludes the museum, which is overwhelmed - and resourced - by a London antique dealer.
Detail of one of the earthenware pieces kept in the Chartreuse museum in Douai.
In the “Chinese” style, these vases of great beauty came from a workshop in Delft in the 1680s. Ville de Douai
Good prince, the collector lends the ardent object of desire to the French museum, pending its possible acquisition.
Public funds will be able to cover up to 50,000 euros of the 70,000 negotiated for the vase.
A call for generosity and sponsorship was released last week by the museum.
He was able to confirm to
Le Figaro
that the use of public subscription found encouraging echoes throughout the territory.
But the results are not yet assured.
“This is a truly unique set in the world,
underlines Guillemette Lagarde.
These pieces, designed in the same oven, at the same time, had different destinies.
We have the opportunity to bring them together for good.
» These three ceramic graces share, under their lid, the same mark of workshop - Het Moriaanshooft, one of the most famous manufactures of Delft.
Remarkably fine, all three pieces are decorated in a Chinese style, inspired by the porcelain brought back by Dutch traders from the far reaches of the Orient.
These polychrome scenes with fountains and gardens populated by processions of scholars were to flatter the Dutch and European bourgeois who acquired them at the end of the 17th century.
They are also the pride of the Chartreuse museum, guardian of these terracotta elegances.
