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Lot Essay
The offered lot is after one of thirteen different pairs of urns of larger size made for the marble parapets separating the Parterre du Nord from the Parterre du Midi at Versailles, where they are still in position. Claude Ballin (1615-1678), goldsmith to Louis XIV was commissioned to design the ensemble which were then modeled by Legendre, Magniere, Tuby and Anguier and cast by Duval after 1665. Several of Ballin's drawings for the Versailles vases are in the Bibliotheque Nationale.
The 4th Marquess of Hertford (1800-1870), due to his friendship with Napoleon III, was granted permission (c. 1857) to have bronze casts of the urns made for the Chateau de Bagatelle, his estate outside of Paris. It is known from the inventory of the contents of Bagatelle in 1871 that 46 vases after Ballin's designs existed in the collection. Moreover, other examples of the vases were cast for English collections, primarily for the friends of the Marquess and his son and heir, Sir Richard Wallace (1818-1890), and a pair are now conserved in the Wallace Collection, London. Later in the 19th Century, the Versailles urns were copied in various mediums and in reduced sizes by foundries such as Durenne, Dugel, A. Beurdeley, Barbezat et Cie and Barbedienne.
The 4th Marquess of Hertford (1800-1870), due to his friendship with Napoleon III, was granted permission (c. 1857) to have bronze casts of the urns made for the Chateau de Bagatelle, his estate outside of Paris. It is known from the inventory of the contents of Bagatelle in 1871 that 46 vases after Ballin's designs existed in the collection. Moreover, other examples of the vases were cast for English collections, primarily for the friends of the Marquess and his son and heir, Sir Richard Wallace (1818-1890), and a pair are now conserved in the Wallace Collection, London. Later in the 19th Century, the Versailles urns were copied in various mediums and in reduced sizes by foundries such as Durenne, Dugel, A. Beurdeley, Barbezat et Cie and Barbedienne.