Christian Wehrlin

A guarniture of three large Imari-style painted terracotta vases each painted in blue, iron-red, white and gilding with panels of birds or foliage against a deep red ground, comprising: a pair of baluster vases and a central ovoid vase and domed cover, the domed lid with a Buddhist lion finial, painted overall with birds and chrysanthemum, peony and prunus blossoms in a red, gold and cobalt blue palette on a brown ground, circa 1765. The lacquer decoration on these vases, imitating the Japanese Imari palette, is similar in execution to the decoration in the Chinese taste on a lacquer tray and a pair of lacquered tôle vases both attributed to Christian Wehrlin, and both previously with Pelham Galleries. All these objects share the same fine craquelure surface and are decorated with flowers and birds treated in a highly individual manner that must be by the same hand. Christian Wehrlin, originally from a Nuremberg family of artists, from 1756 to 1774 worked at the court of the Kings of Savoy and his masterpiece is the 1765 decoration of the Sala da Gioco in the Appartamento di Levante (Chinese East Apartment) in the royal hunting palace of Stupinigi, outside Turin.
The lacquer decoration on the present vases, imitating the Japanese Imari palette, is similar in execution to the decoration in the Chinese taste on a lacquer tray and a pair of lacquered tôle vases both attributed to Christian Wehrlin, and both previously with Pelham Galleries.
All these objects share the same fine craquelure surface and are decorated with flowers and birds treated in a highly individual manner that must be by the same hand. Originally from Vienna, Christian Wehrlin worked at the court of the Kings of Savoy, and his masterpiece is the 1765 decoration of the Sala da Gioco in the Appartamento di Levante (Chinese Apartment) in the royal hunting palace of Stupinigi, outside Turin.
The patterns of the decoration on the present vases, furthermore, are consistent with the prints and drawings contained in the so-called Wehrlin Album (fig. B), a collection of graphic material assembled and used by the artist for his decorative repertoire, today held in the Museo Civico d’Arte Antica e Palazzo Madama in Turin (Lucia Caterina, Cristina Mossetti, Villa delle Regina, Il Riflesso dell'Oriente nel Piemonte del Settecento, Allemandi, Torino, 2005, plates XXXV, no. 9, p. 92 and no. 14, p. 94.)