AN EMPIRE ORMOLU AND CUT-GLASS THREE-PIECE GARNITURE
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VA… Read more The following three lots belonged to the American society hostess Barbara Mortimer Paley, whose marriages to Standard Oil heir Stanley Mortimer of Tuxedo Park and later to CBS board chairman William Paley are discussed in David Grafton's The Lives and Times of the fabulous Cushing Sisters, New York, 1992. The author gives a colourful account of the lives of the three Cushing sisters - Minnie, Betsey and Babe, who were adored like movie stars, setting trends and fahions, leading glamourous lives. Babe was the only 'working girl' of the sisters, she was a fashion editor at Vogue magazine, and Grafton prizes 'her sense of elegance set a standard for the syle-conscious; she was the Duchess of Windsor and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis rolled into one'. THE PROPERTY OF A LADY (LOTS 382-384)
AN EMPIRE ORMOLU AND CUT-GLASS THREE-PIECE GARNITURE

EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Details
AN EMPIRE ORMOLU AND CUT-GLASS THREE-PIECE GARNITURE
Early 19th Century
Comprising a vase-shaped mantel clock and a pair of faceted glass vases, each flanked by winged maiden issuing from scrolling acanthus and holding aloft fruiting vine garlands issuing from bearded Faun's masks, and on a circular spreading foot decorated in relief with stars, swans and palmettes, on a rectangular plinth with concave moulded edge and on splayed feet terminating in dragon's heads, the clock with white enamel dial signed 'a Paris', and twin barrel movement with silk suspension and continental strike on bell, the waisted neck surmounted by a domed lid with a pine-cone finial, the plinth decorated in relief depicting the resting Venus to the front and bacchic masks to the sides
the clock 20 in. (51 cm.) high;
the vases 16¾ in. (42.5 cm.) high (3)
Provenance
Mrs Stanley Mortimer
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

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