Antique Piedmontese Biscuit Porcelain Bust of a Gentleman attributed to the Vinovo Factory
£2,600
A biscuit porcelain bust of a gentleman, almost certainly an artist or writer and possibly of Augustin Pajou, shown in an open-necked shirt beneath an unbuttoned jacket, wearing his hair powdered and tied en queue, raised on a marble socle
Augustin Pajou, 1730-1809
The Royal Porcelain Factory or Manifacture Royale de Porcelaine was established under the patronage of King Vittorio Amedeo III in the fourteenth century castle of Vinovo near Turin.
Pierre-Antoine Hannong was invited to Piedmont by a partner in one of the earlier short-lived factory of Vische, Giovanni Vittorio Brodel. Arthur Lane describes Hannong as the black sheep of the famous Strasbourg family who had tried to sell the secret of hard paste porcelain to Sèvres and had briefly established a factory at Vincennes. He is first recorded at Vinovo on the 1st September 1776. The factory went bankrupt in 1779.
The Vinovo factory produced numerous anbitious groups in biscuit porcelain, another similar bust on this scale was offered for sale buy the renowned E&H Manners of London
