CIRCA 1785

With their distinctive piping-satyr mounts on spirally-fluted tapering supports, these vases relate to a pair at Waddesdon (discussed in G. de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor: Furniture, Clocks and Gilt Bronzes II, Fribourg, 1974, no.210, pp 778-9), as well as to a pair originally in the Russian Imperial Collection, which were sold by the Soviet Union in Berlin, Rudolph Lepke, 6-7 November 1928, lots 141-2, pl.52. Although the original acquisition of these latter vases is unknown, they may conceivably have been amongst Paul I's 1798 shipment of more than 500 exceptional ormolu objets d'art, much of which had been bought in Paris (I. Zeck, 'Bronzes d'ameublement et meubles franais achets par Paul Ier pour le chteau Saint-Michael de Saint-Ptersbourg en 1798-1799', in Bulletin de La Soci t de l'Histoire de l'Art Franais, 1994, pp. 141-157).