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Lot Essay
The striking waterfall or grotto frieze and the unusual water nymphs set these vases apart from related works produced in Paris at that time. Yet it is not only these distinctive motives but also the combination of so many ornamental elements, creating a particularly rich surface decoration, that identify the vases as objects aimed at the Russian market and, in this case, also made in Russia.
These vases belong to a group of closely related Russian vases that were strongly influenced by the work of Claude Galle. However, due to the Russian embargo on French gilt-bronzes and clocks, Russian workshops not only had to come up with their own designs but also produce metalwork that would satisfy a clientele used to the high quality of Parisian production. A closely related pair of vases, attributed to the St Petersburg workshop of J.-J. Baumann, is in The State Hermitage, St. Petersburg (illustrated I. Sychev, Russian Bronze, Moscow, 2003, p. 103). And a further closely related pair, attributed to the celebrated St. Petersburg bronzier Friedrich Bergenfeldt (1768-1822), originates from an 1802 drawing by Ande Voronikhin (1760-1814), probably Count A.S. Stroganov's illegitimate son. A vase signed by Bergenfeldt, and the basis upon which other vases in the group are attributed, was sold at Christie's New York, 26 October 2001, lot 298. The others include a pair recorded in the collections of the Hermitage in the first half of the 19th century; another pair, possibly the latter, exhibited by Ariane Dandois in L'Empire à Travers l'Europe, exh. cat., Paris, 2000, no. 22; a pair formerly in the collections of the counts Bobrinski (illustrated in I. Sytchev, 'Friedrich Bergenfeldt, an Unknown Russian Bronzier', Russian Jeweler, No. 1, 1998, p. 31); and a pair in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence (see M. Chiarini and S. Padovani, Gli Appartamenti Reali di Palazzo Pitti, Florence, 1993, p. 229, fig. II.36).
A closely related pair of vases of French manufacture but almost certainly produced for the Russian market was sold at Christie's, New York, 21 October 2005, lot 429.
These vases belong to a group of closely related Russian vases that were strongly influenced by the work of Claude Galle. However, due to the Russian embargo on French gilt-bronzes and clocks, Russian workshops not only had to come up with their own designs but also produce metalwork that would satisfy a clientele used to the high quality of Parisian production. A closely related pair of vases, attributed to the St Petersburg workshop of J.-J. Baumann, is in The State Hermitage, St. Petersburg (illustrated I. Sychev, Russian Bronze, Moscow, 2003, p. 103). And a further closely related pair, attributed to the celebrated St. Petersburg bronzier Friedrich Bergenfeldt (1768-1822), originates from an 1802 drawing by Ande Voronikhin (1760-1814), probably Count A.S. Stroganov's illegitimate son. A vase signed by Bergenfeldt, and the basis upon which other vases in the group are attributed, was sold at Christie's New York, 26 October 2001, lot 298. The others include a pair recorded in the collections of the Hermitage in the first half of the 19th century; another pair, possibly the latter, exhibited by Ariane Dandois in L'Empire à Travers l'Europe, exh. cat., Paris, 2000, no. 22; a pair formerly in the collections of the counts Bobrinski (illustrated in I. Sytchev, 'Friedrich Bergenfeldt, an Unknown Russian Bronzier', Russian Jeweler, No. 1, 1998, p. 31); and a pair in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence (see M. Chiarini and S. Padovani, Gli Appartamenti Reali di Palazzo Pitti, Florence, 1993, p. 229, fig. II.36).
A closely related pair of vases of French manufacture but almost certainly produced for the Russian market was sold at Christie's, New York, 21 October 2005, lot 429.