“HIPPOCAMPES ET GRONDINS” VASE, 1904
Important vase in dark patinated bronze, lost wax cast by A. A. Hébrard, embellished with two gurnards in relief on a background of starfish and seahorses on the body of the vase
Signed Léo Laporte Blairsy on the belly and Cire perdue A. A. Hébrard on the foot
62 cm. high; 17 cm. diameter
Exhibition
Salon d’Automne, 1904, n. 2015 “Vase aux poissons”, lost wax bronze. (Property of Mr. Hébrard)
Prix du Salon des boursiers de voyage. IIème exposition quinquennale, Grand Palais, Paris 1907, p. 82, n. 7
Exposition universelle et internationale, Gand, 1913
“1900”, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 14 March – 26 June 2000, ill. p. 287, n. 311 in the catalog
Provenance
On the occasion of the second quinquennial exhibition of the “Salon des boursiers du voyage” at the Grand Palais in Paris in 1907, Laporte-Blairsy, award holder in 1896, exhibited, out of competition, about twenty sculptures, electric lamps, a plaster and a paper knife, as well as several drawings and paintings, as some sort of retrospective of his work. It was acknowledged that he used many foundries and editors; Susse, Hébrard, Goldscheider, Colin, Houdebine, Blot and the Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres. Those compositions cast by Adrien Hébrard were without any figures and very different to the particular style he was known for. Five sculptures were exhibited: “Les Algues”, “Les Coquillages”, “Le Poulpe”, “Hippocampes” and “Crocus”.
Our sculpture is not numbered and does not bear the customary lost wax seal of the artist. It is inscribed in full Cire perdue A. A. Hébrard (“Lost wax A. A. Hébrard”). It is one of the first pieces cast by the foundry.