2009 AAANZ Conference Abstracts - The Art Association of Australia ...

Robert Wellington has a broad range of interests working for
ten years in contemporary art galleries and museums, and as
an independent curator and writer. He completed BA Hons.
in Art History and Theory at the University of Sydney in 2009,
specialising in seventeenth-century French print culture.
12. Conchyliomania: Collecting Real and Replicated
Porcelaine Shells in Pre-Linnean France
Jessica Priebe
In 1736, the marchand-mercier Edmé-François Gersaint staged
the first public auction in France of a collection of shells and
other curiosities from the natural world. The highlight of the sale
was a prized cowrie shell that belonged to a family of univalves
known to period collectors as les porcelaines. Admired for their
naturally smooth glossy exteriors and ready decorative effects,
porcelaines shells were highly sought after by eighteenth-century
amateur collectors. Indeed, unlike other shells that required
regular cleaning and polishing, the unique enamelled surface of
the cowrie shell presented a natural artifice that was, according
to one eighteenth-century author, “as perfect as that of the most
brilliant porcelain”. Not surprisingly, interest in these objects
also extended to their ceramic counterparts with many noted
collectors from the period adding original hard paste porcelain
shells to their collections as well as locally produced translations
in soft paste.
This paper considers the relationship between real and
replicated porcelain shells in the context of an emerging market
for these curiosities. In particular, it explores the visual and
conceptual links between these natural and humanly wrought
shells and their subsequent influence on the production of soft
paste porcelain in mid eighteenth-century France. By locating
these objects in amateur collections such as the ones belonging
to Jean de Jullienne, François Boucher and the duc de Bourbon
to name a few, I argue that there is an implicit connection
between the mania for collecting shells, both real and ceramic,
and the aesthetic development of rocaille inspired soft paste
porcelain during this period.
Jessica Priebe is doctoral candidate in the department of Art
History and Theory at the University of Sydney. Her thesis is
an interdisciplinary study analysing the scientific and artistic
parallels between the formation of mid eighteenth-century
conchology and the development of the rococo aesthetic within
the oeuvre of artist and collector François Boucher. Jessica
has presented at both national and international conferences
and was recently awarded the Dora Wiebenson prize for best
graduate student paper presented
at an American scholarly conference during the year 2008.
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