CIRCA 1825

This magnificent pair of ewers is one of the largest and earliest examples of ormolu-mounted colored opaline glass. Their striking rich pink color, much rarer than the bright blues or milky whites, is known as 'gorge de pigeon', or 'pigeon's throat,' and is achieved when gold and pewter particles are added to the liquid lead crystal. The design, with their elegant swan's neck handles, derives from a drawing for a ewer which appears in plate XVIII of the hugely influential Receuil de Décorations Intérieures by Charles Percier and Pierre Franois-Lonard Fontaine, first published in 1801. This book's enormous popularity became the template for the distinct aesthetic associated with Napoleon's court which is now called the Empire style.