Covered Tureen on Stand (Pot-à-oille) (1735–38): Art, History and Details

Covered Tureen on Stand (Pot-à-oille) (1735–38) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier (French, 1695–1750); Pierre-François Bonnestrenne (French); Henry Adnet (French, 1745).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This tureen exemplifies the French Rococo style, an artistic movement celebrating naturalistic forms that developed in Paris during the early 1700s. In contrast to classical, controlled symmetry, Rococo forms morph, twist, and spill into the space around them. Meissonnier embellished this tureen in a picturesque arrangement of vegetables and creatures, transforming a utilitarian object into a decadent display of wealth and abundance. This masterpiece comes from a set of two tureens commissioned by the English Duke of Kingston during an extended stay in Paris in the 1730s.

Object facts

• Title: Covered Tureen on Stand (Pot-à-oille)
• Date: 1735–38
• Creator attribution: Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier (French, 1695–1750); Pierre-François Bonnestrenne (French); Henry Adnet (French, 1745)
• Culture: France, Paris
• Type: Silver
• Technique: silver
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1977.182

A detail from the museum

The langoustine, pigeon, and vegetables were cast using real examples giving the silver copies lifelike detail and appearance.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Cleveland Museum of Art Has Purchased Jointly with Stichting Collectie Thyssen—Bornemisza the Kingston Tureens,” January 4, 1978, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Hawley, Henry H. "Meissonnier's Silver for the Duke of Kingston." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 65, no. 10 (December 1978): 312-352.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.