MID-19TH CENTURY, POSSIBLY ITALY

With their grand scale and fine decoration, these impressive urns of neo-classical form manifest the continued interest in the 19th century in gilt-bronze-mounted porphyry objects. Throughout the 18th century, luxurious works of art combining hardstones such as porphyry and gilt-bronze mounts were created for many of the era’s most sophisticated patrons. Often this gilt-bronze decoration incorporated serpent motifs which was inspired by ancient Roman vessels, and subsequently cast and chased to fit the sinuous forms of the rare hardstones. The serpent handles to the present urns could have been inspired by those on the celebrated pair of ormolu-mounted petrified wood covered vases formerly in the collection of Marie-Antoinette at Versailles (circa 1780) and today in the Musée Nissim de Camondo.