Antique French Porcelain Jacob Petite Desk Set Inkstand Provenance Ava Gardner

Stunning French lavish gilt porcelain inkstand of Museum quality and generous proportions, made by renowned French porcelain maker Jacob Petit. Last quarter of the 19th Century, possibly earlier. The main frame of shaped rectangular form raised on scrolling supports with a central clam shell decoration, on top a seated English Mastiff Dog beside twin drum shaped inkwells. Location: Dublin City, Ireland. Affordable fixed charge Worldwide Store to door shipping arranged by Seller. Provenance: Purchased from the estate of American Acyress Ava Gardner (1992-1990) by renowned London Antiques Dealer Kenneth Neame of Mount Street, Mayfair, London. Jacob Petit Porcelain: French hard-paste porcelain produced by Jacob Petit (b. 1796). Petit worked at the porcelain factory at Sèvres as a painter. With his brother Mardochée he bought a porcelain factory in Fontainebleau in 1830, finally settling in Paris in 1863. The wares he made were of a purely ornamental character; e.g., vases, scent bottles, statuettes, clocks. The high-quality porcelain may have been fired in Limoges. The usual colours are pale pink, light green, mauve, black, and gold. The shapes are idiosyncratic interpretations of the 18th-century rocaille style typical of the popular preference for the neo-Rococo during Louis-Philippe’s reign (1830-1848).