The Pair of Sèvres Vases Delafosse Fond Rose Given by the French State to Lucien Fugère, of elegantly turned baluster shape, beautifully coloured in pink or fond rose and marbled with orange veining, heightend with bands of gold detailing and ormolu mounts, the rising covers with similar decoration and everted circular finials.  

The French State made a gift of this pair of vases to the Opera singer Lucien Fugère (1848-1935). 

Fugère’s father died when he was 6, and at the age of 12 he was apprenticed as a mason, working on repairing statues and gargoyles of Notre Dame with his brothers. He also joined, and got noticed, in the singing societies popular in Paris at that time.Fugère was working as a jewellery representative when he decided to try his luck forging a career in music. After taking private voice lessons (he was refused by the Paris Conservatory) he made his debut as a chansonnier at the Bataclan in 1870. He then made his debut in operetta at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens, in 1874, in La branche cassée by Serpette.The turning point of his career came in 1877, when he made his debut at the Opéra-Comique, as Jean, in Les noces de Jeannette by Victor Massé.

He was to perform there regularly until 1920, creating roles in more than 30 operas, notably, the father in Louise by Gustave Charpentier, Henri de Valois in Le roi malgré lui by Emmanuel Chabrier, and for Jules Massenet, Pandolfe in Cendrillon, the Devil in Grisélidis, des Grieux in Le portrait de Manon, Sancho in Don Quichotte, Boniface in Le jongleur de Notre-Dame, and for André Messager, Maitre André in Fortunio, Buvat in Le chevalier d'Harmental, and le Duc de Longueville in La Basoche. In total he sang in over 100 roles including Mozart 's Operas as Figaro, Leporello, Papageno and Falstaff. He appeared at the Gaîté-Lyrique from 1908 until 1919.Two Chabrier songs are dedicated to Fugère: Sommation irrespectueuse and Pastorales des cochons roses, giving the premiere of the latter in 1890.

In 1898, having sung at the re-opening of the Salle Favart, Fugère was presented to President Faure from whom he received the Cross of the Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur.

Fugère sang le Duc de Longueville one last time at the Opéra-Comique in 1929, and his final performance on stage was as Rossini's Bartolo, at the "Trianon-Lyrique", in 1933, at the age of 85.

He became a singing teacher at the Paris Conservatoire, was a member of Comité de l'Association des Artistes dramatiques, and a member of the 'Commission départementales des Sites et Monuments naturels de caractère artistique de la Charente-Inférieure'.