LATE 19TH CENTURY

Discovered in the late 16th century, the Borghese vase was brought from Prince Camillo Borghese in 1807 by his brother-in-law Napoleon Bonaparte and is now in the Louvre (MR 985). Reflective of the Roman taste for lavish garden ornament, monumental garden vases of this type were de rigueur for any parterre from the mid-17th century onwards. Another pair of vases of similar date to the present lot, but slightly smaller in size, sold Christie’s, New York, 17 October 2003, lot 124 ($113,525).