BY FERDINAND BARBEDIENNE, DESIGNED BY LOUIS-CONSTANT SÉVIN, PARIS, LATE 19TH CENTURY

The design of these brûle-parfums (lots 262 & 263) by Louis-Constant Sévin (d. 1888), sculpteur-ornemaniste to the bronzier Ferdinand Barbedienne (d. 1892), is broadly Neo-Grec in inspiration with the atlas figures drawn from antiquity. It is considered one of Sévin’s masterpieces and one brûle-parfum in white marble and malachite (the same as Lot 263) is illustrated alongside a handful of other works in an effusive tribute in Revue des Arts Décoratifs. The model is also known in plain bronze doré and a pair in brightly coloured rinceaux-inald champlevé enamels sold Christie’s, London, 18 September 2014, lot 34 (£62,500).