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Vase-shaped ice-cream pail (Glaciere a gorge a tetes d'elephants) of ovoid form with a high lip, supported on a waisted foot, terminating in a square base, the blue du roi underglaze blue ground veined to simulate lapis lazuli and flecked with gilding, each side reserved with a medallion painted in browns with a fictive stone cameo portrait, one of Julius Caesar and the other Alexandre the Great, within raised gilt borders. The lip and foot decorated with neo-classical borders, the gilt elephant - head handles and the base burnished and tooled. Gilt copper collar at top of stem. Porcelain cover and metal liner missing. From the Service inconographique grec.
Portrait of Alexander the Great after Ennio Visconti Iconographie Ancienne ou receuil des portraits authentiques ..... (Paris 1808) 11 pl 39
This spectacular ice-cream pail is is from the service iconographique grec, a large and elaborate dessert service. It would have originally had a metal liner and porcelain lid. Each side is painted with a fictive stone cameo portrait - one depicting Julius Caesar and the other Alexander the Great. The object was designed by Alexandre Brachard, painted by Jean-Marie Degault and gilded by Charles-Marie-Pierre Boitel.
