18TH CENTURY

Details

A Gold and Silver-Inlaid Bronze Figural Vase
18th century
Hollow-cast in the form of a mythical beast standing on four squat legs, with tapering muzzle and long horns swept back above the ears and with an undulating ribbon draped around the top of the back below the baluster vase flanked on one side by a small gold-spotted pup balanced on its front legs, and on the other side by the head of the dragon-form handle, the neck of the vase cast with archaistic blades below the barbed, everted rim, decorated overall with scrolls inlaid with silver wire and gold inlay accents in contrast to the olive-brown patina, the underside with the remains of a painted inventory number, SX.5...
9½in. (24.2cm.) high

Provenance

Christie's New York, 30 April 1977, Collection of Lord and Lady White of Hull, lot 195.

Lot Essay

The fragmentary inventory number painted on the underside may possibly refer to William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, who was a large-scale collector and founder of the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, England. All of his inventory numbers begin with the letter SX.

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