Tobacco Jars - Lot 139

Tobacco Jars Fine Sarreguemines stoneware, second half of the 19th century Urn-shaped pot with a tin-rimmed lid that opens on a hinge. On the body, a very finely executed relief decoration depicting a Flemish village fair shows scenes of village life in the style of the Flemish painter David Teniers or Teniens: a couple in love, another in which the wife is dragging her drunk husband away, musicians making a third couple dance, a group of men engaged in conversation, and another man offering a drink to a woman. On the lid, which is also very finely carved, a peasant leaning against a tree trunk—which serves as a match holder—is playing his bagpipes. Marked in a cartouche with the letter M between the talons of an eagle with outstretched wings, which, like pot 208, indicates its provenance: Sarreguemines, circa 1870. Fine Sarreguemines stoneware, 19th century These two tobacco jars—the first, shaped like an urn, made of fine brown stoneware and complete with its lid but bearing no “mark,” and the second, made of glazed beige stoneware and missing its lid but signed—feature the same decoration: on the body, three grotesques from the Commedia dell’Arte are separated from one another by three sets of two columns surrounding the comedy mask. On the pointed lid, the handle consists of three animal masks placed back-to-back. Marked on the bottom of the beige jar with an engraved letter “S” and, within a seal, a Napoleonic eagle with its head turned to the right, resting on an oak branch and a laurel branch, which surround the number 51—probably the mold number. England? Large chips on the lid. H 20 cm Fine gray glazed stoneware, circa 1860 A rare pearl-gray tobacco jar illustrating the myth of Faust. The lid knob depicts a grinning Mephistopheles, seated with his legs crossed. As for the couple Faust and Marguerite, they are depicted twice on the body of the jar in two different poses, separated from one another by allegorical compositions featuring two swords, a cloak and a hat with large feathers, a printing press, and an hourglass to better evoke the passage of time. The decoration is very meticulous, with traces of gilding. In the background, a cartouche bearing an eagle with outstretched wings enclosing the number 52 within a laurel wreath (which may be the number of the mold used) indicates its place of origin: Sarreguemines. Slight chips. H 24 cm