Resumen de The Chatsworth Vases, a gift from Louis XV in 1768 to Henri Léonard Jean-Baptiste Bertin
The writer discusses the provenance of the Chatsworth Vases as gifts given in 1768 by Louis XV to Henri Leonard Jean-Baptiste Bertin. Distinguished by their rare and exotic fond violet ground, the vases are held at Chatsworth in Derbyshire, England, home of William Spencer Cavendish, the 6th Duke of Devonshire. They are listed in the December 1768 sales inventories at the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres, having been commissioned by Louis XV as a gift for Bertin, together with a second garniture of three vases presented to Jean-Baptiste Machault d'Arnouville. While the production of these garnitures marked a watershed in the ingenuity and technical accomplishment of Jean-Jacques Bailly and his colleagues at Sèvres, just as intriguing is Louis XV's choice of recipients for such lavish gifts, both of whom were prominent within 18th-century court circles, notably as two of the King's finance ministers. How and from where the Chatsworth Vases arrived in the collection in Derbyshire is currently unknown, however.
