The mounts on these vases are virtually identical to those on the celebrated pair of Louis XVI ormolu-mounted Chinese ewers supplied to Marie Antoinette after 1782, almost certainly by Pierre Gouthière, which were subsequently in the Palais de Saint Cloud until 1855. They were later acquired by Sir Julius Wernher Bt. (d.1912) for Bath House, Piccadilly, after which they passed into the collection at Luton Hoo, Bedfordshire and were sold Christie's London, 9 June 1994, lot 35. Pierre Gouthière (maître in 1758) was appointed doreur ordinaire des menus plaisiers in 1767, and was commissioned by the garde-meuble privé de la Reine to manufacture bronzes d'ameublement to the sum of 19, 1711 livres. He was one of the most celebrated ciseleur-doreurs of the period and was especially associated with Marie Antoinette, who purchased several items of his work at the 1782 sale of effects of the duc d'Aumont, a former owner of the ewers (when they had Louis XV mounts, which were then replaced by Marie Antoinette with Gouthière's mounts) and patron of the architect François-Joseph Belanger, who worked closely with Gouthière and may have provided the design for the ewers' mounts. A trumpet vase with closely related mounts to the base is in the J. Paul Getty Museum (see J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, vol. 16, Malibu, 1988, pp. 178-9, no. 74).