Sèvres, Paris Olympic Games Trophies

The Sèvres manufacture is renown for its classical design linked to the royalty, however it has produced some more “extravagant” pieces overtime such as the edition we will focus on in this article, created on the occasion of the Paris Summer Olympic Games of 1924, known as “Vase de Blois”.

In 1924, on the occasion of the Paris Summer Olympic Games, Georges Lechevallier-Chevignard, director of the Sèvres Manufacture asked Octave Guillonnet, a French painter and decorator specialized in orientalist and sports scenes and the ceramist Emile Bracquemond, to come up with a vase that would celebrate this event.

From this collaboration between the two artists would result the “Vase de Blois” - originally produced in a large size (1.1m high) - featuring a fine scenery on the honor of the various sports and gifted to the Olympic Museum of Lausanne.

Parisian storefronts plastered with posters, 1924.
© ARCHIVES CNOSF//Getty Images

Following this creation, the city of Paris ordered from the Sèvres Manufacture 324 smaller pieces (33cm high) of this vase that would be gifted to the winning athletes as a souvenir from the Olympic Games. 4 different versions of this vase have been imagined by Octave Guillonet, each of them with different sports scenes .

Sèvres Manufacture
“Blois vase”, 1924
© Drouot

It is interesting to note that only 35 French athletes were gifted these vases, the vast majority of them ended up going abroad with the international athletes including more than 100 to the USA.

The wide distribution of these vases across the world explains why it is quite rare to see them on the market today but also why sometimes we may see them pop for sale in different regions around the world.

Sèvres Manufacture
Detail of one of the “Blois vase”, 1924
© Drouot

Finally, another version of the “Vase de Blois” - less famous but maybe more spectacular - has also been created in 1924 by the French painter Geroges Leroux and exhibited from 1925.
Today it can be viewed in the Carnavalet Museum in Paris. Compared to the first version, the scenery is more “rich” with various country flags, the Olympic Rings and the emblem of the city of Paris.