A PAIR OF LOUIS XVI GILT-BRONZE MOUNTED TRACHYANDÉSITE MARBLE VASES LATE 18TH CENTURY

This pair of vases embodies the French taste in the 18th century to mount precious materials such as stone, porcelain and lacquer with gilt-bronze mounts of great quality and design.

The vases belong to a group of examples mounted with similar finely chased gilt-bronze mounts that depict a grotesque mask transforming into leaves, where the handles issues from on either sides. This choice of design lends the vases clever proportions: for example, the masks are echoed in the charming S-scroll of each handle, the mille-raies along the handles and the sprig of leaves ornamenting the curve of the handle are echoed in the base with laurel leaves and refined fluting, and overall the three-dimensionality of the vase and mounts compliments the smooth coloured surface of the stone. The present lot with its mounts and trachyandésite, a stone quarried in France is also an hymn to the high standards of craftsmanship found in France and to the rich material resources of the country.

From this group of vases with related mounts, one pair in porphyry, formerly in the Collection Salzmann was sold Palais Galliera, Paris, 20 June 1961, lot 118. Another pair with again the same mounts but with Chinese porcelain was formerly in the Collection of Jules Strauss, sold Palais Galliera, Paris, 7 March 1961, lot 57.