Wynn Magazine - Las Vegas
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/660157
PhotograPhy by barbara Kraft ( vases in Macau); © country Life (DaLKeith PaL ace); © beDforD LeMere & co./aL aMy stocK Photo (Montagu house) Montagu House, Whitehall, was one of London's grandest private mansions in its day, housing the exceptional Buccleuch art collection. for two centuries prior, albeit for a family of Scottish nobility that included two of the fore- most art collectors of the early 19th century. The quartet, known as the Buccleuch vases, was either first acquired by Elizabeth Montagu, 3rd Duchess of Buccleuch and Queensberry (1743–1827), and later inherited by her grand- son Walter, 5th Duke of Buccleuch and 7th Duke of Queensberry, or they were purchased by him in the late 1820s. By 1827, Walter was one of the richest landowners in Britain (the cur- rent Duke of Buccleuch is still the largest private landowner in the United Kingdom). And though a property inventory for Elizabeth's Montagu House prior to his inheriting it listed a number of vases, including "Sea Green China Vases" and "enameld [sic] China Jars," it was her grandson who became one of England's great- est collectors, with the largest stores of not only Boulle furniture and Sèvres porcelain but also of ormolu-mounted Chinese porcelain. Montagu House, Whitehall, was one of London's grandest private mansions in its day, hosting aristocracy and housing the excep- tional Buccleuch art collection, which included works by Raphael, Rubens, Rembrandt, and Canaletto, along with many porcelain objets d'art. The vases resided with the Buccleuch family, later in the family's Dalkeith Palace in Scotland, until the death of Walter Montagu Douglas Scott, 8th Duke of Buccleuch and 10th Duke of Queensberry, in 1973. They were auctioned twice after that, including in 2011, when Wynn Executive Vice President of Design Roger Thomas spotted them in his Christie's catalog and immediately made plans to fly to London to bid on the quartet. The find was so memorable, he recalls, he still has the catalog. The vases likely originally arrived in London via one of the importers of "foreign curiosities" in the West End, who sought exotic items for wealthy clients for whom oriental objets were in vogue. The ormolu mounts were attached to "improve" the porcelain—dealers worked with Parisian marchands-merciers (merchants) to clockwise from top left: The vases at Wynn Macau; a vase in its home in Dalkeith Palace in 1902; Dalkeith Palace; a print of Montagu House, Whitehall, 1896. commission the mounts. To the credit of the bronziers who made them, they recognized the incredible quality of the porcelain, says Robert Copley, Christie's Deputy Chairman and International Head of the Exceptional Sale of Decorative Arts. "Often the pieces were pierced to accommodate the ornate mounts," he notes. "What's interesting about the combi- nation of these vases is that the French respected the porcelain enough to leave it intact." Not only are the vases of incredible quality, they are also significant for combining images and motifs from both Buddhism and Daoism. The 2,000-year-old indigenous Chinese reli- gion of Daoism thrived throughout the 300-year-long Qing Dynasty, during which these vases were produced, despite the emper- ors' preference for Tibetan Buddhism. The many bats in flight depicted on the celadon background are an auspicious symbol of happi- ness and prosperity, as the word "bats" is a homophone in Chinese for a word meaning "happiness." According to the lot notes by 56