Early 19th Century Nimy Belgian Faience Large Blue & White Chinoiserie Soup Tureen, Cover & Stand

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Nimy Belgian Faience Large Blue & White Chinoiserie Soup Tureen, Cover & Stand
Early 19th Century

This is a big, … Read more Nimy Belgian Faience Large Blue & White Chinoiserie Soup Tureen, Cover & Stand
Early 19th Century

This is a big, generous piece of blue and white: a monumental soup tureen with its cover and stand, made at the Nimy factory outside Mons, Belgium, in the early 19th century. The tureen is painted in a deep underglaze blue with a chinoiserie flowering plant growing from rockwork on each side and a large stylized insect hovering above, a design taken from the porcelain of nearby Tournai, with smaller sprays of flowers and leaves beneath the handles and around the rim of the cover and the broad rim of the stand.

The modeling is as strong as the painting. Big acanthus scroll handles sweep up from each side of the body, the domed cover is molded with pine cones and oak leaves beneath a flower-head finial with a blue center, and every rim is finished with a crisp blue line and a zigzag-and-dot border. The stand has a deep well and a raised center that holds the tureen firmly in place.

Nearly 15 inches high and 16 inches across the handles, it reads as a centerpiece rather than a serving piece. Set it in the middle of a dining table, on a sideboard beneath a mirror, or on a console in an entrance hall, where the ivory ground and inky blue hold their own against dark wood, painted paneling, or a blue and white scheme of Delft and Chinese export porcelain. It is equally at home in a country kitchen filled with greenery and in a formal city dining room.

Dimensions:
Overall height: 14¾ inches (37.5 cm)
Tureen height: 13½ inches (34.3 cm)
Tureen width across the handles: 16 inches (40.6 cm)
Tureen depth: 12 inches (30.5 cm)
Stand diameter: 14⅞ inches (37.8 cm)
Stand height: 1½ inches (3.8 cm)

Marks:
Impressed “NIM” (for Nimy), together with an impressed “4/” and “D”, to the underside of the stand.

Provenance:
Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge

Historical Context:
Founded in 1789 and honored by the Emperor Joseph II with the title of “Fabrique Impériale et Royale,” the Nimy factory made faience fine on a frit-strengthened body designed to fire harder and whiter than ordinary faience, in the manner of English creamware. Its blue-painted wares of the early 19th century, known as Vieux-Nimy, often borrowed the patterns of other celebrated factories, as this tureen borrows Tournai’s “à la mouche” design. Two large dishes with the same decoration are displayed at the Musée de Nimy – Carrefour de la Céramique in Nimy (Mons).

(Ref: NY10211-iirr) See less