A Monumental Enamelled Earthenware Vase and Pedestal

Designed by Adalbert de Beaumont, Manufactured by Eugène Victor Collinot, 1870

Enamelled Signature E. Collinot 1870

77 ¾ in (198 cm) high, 33 in (83 cm) wide

cf. Victoria and Albert Museum, Art & Design in Europe and America 1800-1900, 1987, pp. 126-127

Eugène Victor Collinot’s first collection of oriental and orientalist designs was published in 1859 after his travels with Adalbert de Beaumont, whose own interest in Middle Eastern ornamentation had been sparked by an earlier work on the origin of heraldry. Collinot’s publication covered designs from Islam, the Far East and Venice and was later (1880 and 1883) extended to illustrate motifs from as far afield as Russia. Collinot established a faience pottery factory with de Beaumont in 1862 at Boulevard d’Auteuil, Parc-au-Princes, Boulogne-sur-Seine. Within the year, Collinot exhibited Persian-style faience designed by de Beaumont at the Union Centrale, and both men received gold medals, Collinot for his production and de Beaumont for ‘the promotion of industry in France’ and for ‘publications which furnished industries with models of Persian ornament’.

In 1865 Collinot received an important award from the Shah of Persia for his contribution to the revival of Persian ceramic art. Two years later, his display at the 1867 International Exposition in Paris was an outstanding triumph, winning a silver medal, and featuring pieces acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Art Journal was enthusiastic about his work describing it as of ‘high order, not alone in design...M. Collinot is a true artist’.

An almost identical white-ground vase was exhibited at the Paris Exposition of 1867 and acquired for 3,000 francs by the Victoria and Albert Museum where it is currently on view (illustrated and described in the museum’s catalogue, Art and Design in Europe and America 1800-1900, pp.126-127). The Museum also purchased three other large items of Collinot’s work from the same exhibition.

Although described as ‘Persian’ by Collinot, both the vase at the Victoria and Albert Museum and this vase are freely based on Middle Eastern motifs, none of them from an identifiable source. It is interesting to speculate that as the Persian style was so fashionable in the late 1860s and ‘70s, Collinot produced the yellow-ground version of his silver medal winner in 1870 for display in London during the International Exhibition of 1871. However, though he may have sent pieces for display in London, Collinot is not listed as an exhibitor at that exhibition.