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Lot Essay
With their distinctive piping-satyr mounts on spirally-fluted tapering supports, these vases relate to a pair at Waddesdon (discussed in G. de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor: Furniture, Clocks and Gilt Bronzes II, Fribourg, 1974, no.210, pp 778-9), as well as to a pair originally in the Russian Imperial Collection, which were sold by the Soviet Union in Berlin, Rudolph Lepke, 6-7 November 1928, lots 141-2, pl.52. Although the original acquisition of these latter vases is unknown, they may conceivably have been amongst Paul I's 1798 shipment of more than 500 exceptional ormolu objets d'art, much of which had been bought in Paris (I. Zeck, 'Bronzes d'ameublement et meubles Français achetés par Paul Ier pour le château Saint-Michael de Saint-Petersbourg en 1798-1799', in Bulletin de La Société de l'Histoire de l'Art Français, 1994, pp. 141-157). Interestingly, the Wildenstein pair display distinctive 'dorure au mat'.
A pair of vases of this model is in the Henry J. Huntington Collection, Pasadena, California. Originally from the collection of Baron Eric von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, these are illustrated in R. Wark, French decorative Art in the Huntington Collection, San Marino, 1979, p.120, fig.U. A further pair with porphyry bodies, without lids, was sold from the Alexander Collection, Christie's New York, 30 April 1999, lot 149 ($112,500).
A pair of vases of this model is in the Henry J. Huntington Collection, Pasadena, California. Originally from the collection of Baron Eric von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, these are illustrated in R. Wark, French decorative Art in the Huntington Collection, San Marino, 1979, p.120, fig.U. A further pair with porphyry bodies, without lids, was sold from the Alexander Collection, Christie's New York, 30 April 1999, lot 149 ($112,500).