The Frick Collection: Exhibitions: Future

Rococo Exotic: French Mounted Porcelain and the Allure of the East

March 6 through
September 9, 2007

About This Exhibition

Introduction

Rococo Exotic

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	Pair of Deep Blue Chinese Porcelain Jars with French Gilt-Bronze Mounts Porcelain, China, 1st half of the eighteenth century Gilt-bronze mounts, France, 1745-49 1915.8.41: 17 7 ⁄8 x 18 5 ⁄8 x 10 11 ⁄16 in (45.4 x 47.3 x 27.1 cm); 1915.8.42: 18 7 ⁄16 x 18 5 ⁄8 x 10 5 ⁄8 in. (47 x 47.3 x 27 cm). The Frick Collection, New York (photo: Michael Bodycomb)

In mid-eighteenth-century France, mounted Asian porcelains were the height of fashion. More Far Eastern porcelains were set into elaborate metal mounts in the period between 1740 and 1760 than at any other point in European history, and Paris was the center of this phenomenon. Commissioned by the Parisian marchands merciers, or luxury merchants, artisans produced exquisite gilt bronze confections to adorn imported porcelains and often modified the porcelains themselves in order to adapt them to the décor of French interiors. This exhibition explores the design and reception of such rococo luxury objects by focusing on a pair of mounted eighteenth-century Chinese porcelains in The Frick Collection. Purchased by Henry Clay Frick in 1915, the deep blue vases were cut down and the mounts added between 1745 and 1749. Ornamented with elaborate gilt-bronze imitations of natural forms such as shells, coral, pearls, and bulrushes, these costly items fuse a contemporary fascination with natural exotica, largely imported from the East, with the concurrent fashion for Far Eastern porcelains. Drawing on prints, books, and other objects, the exhibition explores the convergence of the natural and the humanly wrought in the production of such elite wares and probe the fascination with the exotic that lies at the heart of the Rococo.

Rococo Exotic: French Mounted Porcelains and the Allure of the East is accompanied by a fully illustrated publication that features an introduction by Chief Curator Colin B. Bailey as well as an essay by Andrew W. Mellon Fellow Kristel Smentek, catalogue entries, and a bibliography. It is available in the Museum Shop of The Frick Collection.