The Grecian vases are borne by plinth-supported and acanthus-wrapped chimerical monopodia in the form of winged lions. Related lions featured in the ornamental pattern-book published in the architect Charles Heathcote Tatham's Etchings representing fragments of Antique Grecian and Roman Architectural ornament chiefly collected in Italy, 1806.
An almost identical pair of bronze lamps, still with their oil reservoirs supported on the lions' heads, was sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 17 November 1994, lot 66.