Provenance

Possibly purchased by Louis XV on the 23rd of December 1773 for the sum of 600 livres the pair.

Probably part of a garniture which George IV purchased from Robert Fogg in 1818 for £210. Fogg’s bill, dated the quarter ending 5 January 1819, reads: ‘3 fine Sève Porcelaine Vases blue & gold ground, Medallions of Turkish Figures’. It is conceivable that the bill post-dates the receipt of the vases at Carlton House, if they have been correctly identified as the three vases entered by Jutsham in his receipts’ ledger on 7 July 1818. He noted that they had come from the Custom House: ‘3 Old Seve Vases Blue Ground with Compartments painted with Figures in the Turkish Costume, the Centre one 17 Inches high, the 2 side Ones 14 Inches high [annotated] Old Dining Room’. By 1826 the three vases were no longer treated as a garniture – two of the vases (cat. no. 89) being recorded in 1826 in the Bow Room, Principal Floor, Carlton House: ‘No.26 A pair of blue and gold Seve Porcelain Vases with two Compartments painted in Turkish Figures and musical Instruments, white and gold leaf handles, square plinths, 13 ½ In. high’.