The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

Pair of Bottle Coolers (seaux à rafraîchir)

c. 1740
manufacturer

Villeroy Factory

manufacturer

Mennecy- Villeroy Factory

(French)
France, Villeroy, 18th century
Tin-glazed soft-paste porcelain with enamel decoration
Overall: 15.7 x 21.9 x 18.8 cm (6 3/16 x 8 5/8 x 7 3/8 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1947.60
Location: 216A French and German

Did You Know?

The four figures on horseback are derived from prints French designer Jean Antoine Fraisse modeled after textiles, lacquers, and porcelains found in the collection of Louis-Henri, duke of Bourbon.

Description

These bottle coolers combine a traditionally European form based on silver models with designs and compositions that emulate Chinese and Japanese porcelain. Towering over the figures the luxuriant, vividly colored vegetation is characteristic of chinoiserie, imitations of East Asian decoration and design common in 18th-century European decorative arts. Distorted by the European imagination, these imitations were not accurate representations of the cultures from which they drew inspiration.
  • Darblay, Ayme. Villeroy: son passé, sa fabrique de porcelaine, son état actuel. Paris: Picard, 1901. p. 88, pl. 29
    Foote, Helen S. "French Soft-Paste Porcelain." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 34 (December 1947): 249-250. p. 250
    Foote, Helen S. "Soft-Paste Porcelain in France." Art Quarterly XI (Autumn 1948) p. 340, 344; figs. 11, 12
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 134 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 134 archive.org
    Jedding, Hermann. Europäisches Porzellan. München: Keysersche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1971. p. 256; no. 786
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 176 archive.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art, and Jenifer Neils. The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Museum in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1982. Mentioned: p, 59; Reproduced: p. 59, fig. 61 and colorplate 61 after p. 54
    Duchon, Nicole. La Manufacture de porcelaine de Mennecy Villeroy. Le Mée-sur-Seine: Editions Amatteis, 1988. p. 22
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: The Museum, 1991. p. 108
  • The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 20-August 22, 1982).
    Chinoiserie: The Chinese Influence. Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, OH (organizer) (October 5-December 2, 1979).
    Cathay Invoked: Chinoiserie, A Celestial Empire in the West. Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA (organizer) (June 10-July 31, 1966).
  • {{cite web|title=Pair of Bottle Coolers (seaux à rafraîchir)|url=false|author=Villeroy Factory, Mennecy- Villeroy Factory|year=c. 1740|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1947.60