CIRCA 1865

This finely-enameled and jeweled bottle closely related to works attributed to the workshop of Charles Duron (d. 1872), a mid-19th century goldsmith specializing in gold-mounted hardstone vessels and objects of vertu.  The soft pastel palette of the enamel and white-ground rope-twist edging related to works now in the Musée d'Orsay (lapis lazuli bowl), the British Museum (agate ewer) and Hermitage (lapis lazuli ewer).  Like the other great goldsmith-jewelers of the period, including Jean-Valentin Morel, Duron was inspired by the French Royal jewels that had been installed in the Louvre's Galerie d'Apollon in 1862.  Duron's interpretations of these mounted hardstones from the 16th and 17th centuries won him both critical acclaim at the 1867 International Exhibition and major patronage; his clients included the most notable collectors of the period, including Alfred Morrison, the Marquess of Hertford and the Rothschild family. (O. Gabet, "Kunstkammer Objects in the Age of the World's Fairs: Charles Duron in 1867," The Burlington Magazine, June 2007, pp. 393-399).