Lot Essay
Pierre-Philippe Thomirè, maître in 1772.
The plinth-supported and ormolu-enriched marble vases with handles and finialled covers are in the form of Grecian alabastron urns, and are embellished in the 'antique' manner as a garniture de cheminée in the fashion encouraged by the publication of G.B. Piranesi's, Diverse Maniere d'Adornare i Camini, 1769. The green serpentine urns are thought to have been carved in the Parisian workshops of the Hôtel du Garde-Meuble, which had been established under the directorship of Louis-Marie-Augustin, duc d'Aumont (d. 1782), Louis XVI's First Gentleman of the Bedchamber. Related Grecian-urns, dating from the 1770s, featured as lot 4 in the duc d'Aumont's sale held in Paris in 1782, and were brought by the marchand-mercier Julliot on behalf of Louis XVI (see: F.J.B. Watson, Wallace Collection Catalogues: Furniture, London, 1956, no. F360). Their ormolu mounts can be attributed to the celebrated bronzier Pierre-Philippe Thomire (d. 1843); the flower of myrtle-leaves, for instance, also provided an appropriate cradle for a cassolette-vase, that was mounted by Thomire and accompanied by the name of Dominique Daguerre in the Sèvres archives for 1786 (see R. Savil, The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, London, 1988, no. C342).
These vases were acquired by John Russell in Paris in 1803, the year after he succeeded as 6th Duke of Bedford (d. 1839). They feature in the account presented on the 28 April by the celebrated marchand-mercier Martin-Eloi Lignereux, whose business in the rue Vivienne was acquired by Thomire the following year. They were described as Deux vases de Serpentine forme d'oeuf avec Couvercles les anses prises dans la masse...1560 (MSS, Woburn archives). The vases were displayed with an oval porphyry vase, and bronze figure candelabra that were also supplied by Lignereux, and were illustrated on the Duke's library mantlepiece at Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire, when the room was engraved for P.F. Robinson's, Vitruvius Britannicus, 1827
These vases are listed in the Library in the Inventory drawn up on the death of the 6th Duke in 1839 as: A pair of giltmetal mounted antique and rare marble vases
The plinth-supported and ormolu-enriched marble vases with handles and finialled covers are in the form of Grecian alabastron urns, and are embellished in the 'antique' manner as a garniture de cheminée in the fashion encouraged by the publication of G.B. Piranesi's, Diverse Maniere d'Adornare i Camini, 1769. The green serpentine urns are thought to have been carved in the Parisian workshops of the Hôtel du Garde-Meuble, which had been established under the directorship of Louis-Marie-Augustin, duc d'Aumont (d. 1782), Louis XVI's First Gentleman of the Bedchamber. Related Grecian-urns, dating from the 1770s, featured as lot 4 in the duc d'Aumont's sale held in Paris in 1782, and were brought by the marchand-mercier Julliot on behalf of Louis XVI (see: F.J.B. Watson, Wallace Collection Catalogues: Furniture, London, 1956, no. F360). Their ormolu mounts can be attributed to the celebrated bronzier Pierre-Philippe Thomire (d. 1843); the flower of myrtle-leaves, for instance, also provided an appropriate cradle for a cassolette-vase, that was mounted by Thomire and accompanied by the name of Dominique Daguerre in the Sèvres archives for 1786 (see R. Savil, The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, London, 1988, no. C342).
These vases were acquired by John Russell in Paris in 1803, the year after he succeeded as 6th Duke of Bedford (d. 1839). They feature in the account presented on the 28 April by the celebrated marchand-mercier Martin-Eloi Lignereux, whose business in the rue Vivienne was acquired by Thomire the following year. They were described as Deux vases de Serpentine forme d'oeuf avec Couvercles les anses prises dans la masse...1560 (MSS, Woburn archives). The vases were displayed with an oval porphyry vase, and bronze figure candelabra that were also supplied by Lignereux, and were illustrated on the Duke's library mantlepiece at Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire, when the room was engraved for P.F. Robinson's, Vitruvius Britannicus, 1827
These vases are listed in the Library in the Inventory drawn up on the death of the 6th Duke in 1839 as: A pair of giltmetal mounted antique and rare marble vases