THE MOUNTS CIRCA 1785, THE PORCELAIN IN THE 18TH-CENTURY SEVRES STYLE

The mounts which adorn this beautiful pair of vases can be found variously on vases, candelabra and other ornaments in the goût étrusque dating from circa 1780-85. The bacchic vine-wrapped thrysus to the centre features on a three-light candelabrum of circa 1780, in the form of a Bacchante in the manner of Clodion holding aloft a thrysus, which is in the Wallace Collection, London (H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel, et. al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I, p. 285, fig. 4.14.13). The spirally-fluted and foliate cast branches also feature on a pair of candelabra formed of caryatid figures carrying baskets on their heads now in the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio (ibid., p. 284, fig. 4.14.9). A related pair of vases with the same shape to the body of the vase, the same socle below stiff-leaves, matted square base, spirally-twisted shoulders, leaf rim and goat's mask handles, but with lily-spray candle-branches, was with Partridge (Partridge - Recent Acquisitions, 1997, pp. 114-5, no. 47); a further pair, also of Paris hard-paste porcelain decorated with flowers, and converted to lamps, was sold from the Collection of a Lady, Christie's London, 10 December 2009, lot 590; and a further pair of the same model as the Partridge pair, but with the bodies in alabaster rather than porcelain, was offered anonymously at Sotheby's Monaco, 15 June 1996, lot 201.