Details
A French ormolu table centrepiece on cylindrical plinth base with applied decoration of bands of fruit, foliage and ribbon-tied fruiting vine festoons, applied with three maenad figures, each with loosely draped robe and carrying a thyrsus staff supporting the shaped-circular dish, pierced and chased with fruiting vines, by Thomire, Paris, circa 1830, 27½in. high.
Further details
The ormolu fruit-basket, serving as a centrepiece for a dining-table, is designed in the French 'antique' style promoted by C. Percier and P. Fontaine's Receuil de Decorations Interieures, 1801. The vine-wreathed basket is supported, in the Grecian manner, by a caryatid tripod of thyrsae-bearing nymphs and youths dancing round a vine cluster in celebration of the vintage. Its altar-drum plinth is embellished with poetic music trophies festooned with vines and bears the signature of Pierre-Philippe Thomire (d.1843), the most celebrated Parisian bronzeur-fondeur during the reign of Charles X (1822-30).
The wreath-bearing figures appear on a related surtout illustrated H. Ottomeyer and P. Proschel, Vergoldete Brozen; Munich, 1986 p.386, and on a pair illustrated J. Dinkel, The Royal Pavilion at Brighton, c.1985 p10.
The wreath-bearing figures appear on a related surtout illustrated H. Ottomeyer and P. Proschel, Vergoldete Brozen; Munich, 1986 p.386, and on a pair illustrated J. Dinkel, The Royal Pavilion at Brighton, c.1985 p10.