Inkstand Late 18th / Early 19th century

Curator: Look at this beautiful "Inkstand," crafted by Manufacture nationale de Sèvres in the late 18th or early 19th century. You can find it here at the Art Institute of Chicago. Editor: Oh, it’s striking. Immediately, I see the high rococo style. It’s opulent in its truest essence, wouldn’t you agree? Curator: Absolutely. Now, focus on the interplay of porcelain and ceramic. What does that melding suggest to you? Editor: It tells me about labor. How the creation of this object, probably displayed as art, came down to the labor of extracting those raw materials, the porcelain in the mountains and clay on the banks of rivers and transporting and preparing them through human force. The firing, the casting, the glazing... it’s immense. I wonder how much time an object like this represented back then in wages? Curator: Indeed! I am interested in these flower decorations, are they supposed to depict nature truthfully, or are they an idealization? What message is conveyed? Are we romanticizing something? Editor: It reflects the tension in the decorative arts of the period: between faithful naturalism and stylized artifice. And that vivid turquoise bordering those panels... what’s your read on it? It gives it this extra brightness, like a gemstone. Curator: Precisely. It captures the aesthetic that was prominent in European high society. An expression of wealth. And the level of handcrafted skill... the gilding... the fineness of the porcelain. Each component had many makers in that time. Editor: True! You touched on its craftsmanship. Considering that it's an inkstand... I'm thinking of the physical labor of writing. So many quills needing regular sharpening. And how this stand symbolizes intellectual and political labor in its own way. Curator: Thinking of its use within a study, it does act almost like a crown on all of that endeavor... the literal seat for the generation of new ideas and directives that reshaped their time, doesn't it? Editor: Definitely a throne for the creative, rebellious, or even the ordinary bureaucrat's messy genius! Makes one think differently about "high art" and its connection to the "lowly" act of daily writing, right? Curator: Precisely. That tension is what makes it continue to fascinate! Editor: Well said! It gives new appreciation for what can be considered art.