Exhibition labels & didactics - National Gallery of Victoria

50
MANUFACTURE DE SÈVRES manufacturer
France est. 1756
Egyptian inkwell
Encrier égyptien
1802
porcelain (patinated and gilt)
Sèvres Cité de la Céramique, Paris inv. MNC 2648
Napoleon’s exploits in Egypt reinvigorated
earlier eighteenth-century taste for things
Egyptian. This Egyptian-style inkwell
fabricated with an imitation bronze finish is
one of the Sèvres manufactory’s first works
directly inspired by the Egyptian Campaign.
The decoration incorporates a fanciful
appropriation and interpretation of Egyptian
hieroglyphs. The pair of sphinx fireplace
guards also displayed here represent
a model very much in vogue during the
Consulate and Empire periods. Fireplace
guards of this type are to be found in
the bedchambers of both Josephine and
Napoleon at Malmaison.
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