These palm-enriched krater vases, with voluted handles in the Grecian manner, have bas-reliefs depicting Apollo's laurel-wreathed lyres festooned with beribbnoned fruit-garlands. Such pedestal-supported vases formed part of table-centrepieces (surtout de tables), which were a speciality of the celebrated bronzier Pierre-Phillipo Thomire (d.1843), who was appointed ciseleur to Emperor Napoleon in 1809. A vase of related form, designed in 1810 by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon was illustrated in C.D.J. Normand's Modeles d'orfevrerie, 1822; while a closely related pair of vases (sold Christie's Monaco, 20 June 1994, lot 89) were embellished with bas-reliefs of dancers, which derived from Prud'hons 'Triumph of Trajan' design of 1802. The dancers also appear on a vase bearing the inscription 'Thomire et Compie.', which Thomire adopted after 1819 (see Decorative Bronzes of Pierre-Phillipe Thomire, Exhibition Catalogue, The Hermitage, 1984 no.49). The lyre bas-relief, which also derives from a Prud'hon design, appeared in 1810 on a clock celebrating the Marriage of Emperor Napoleon and Empress Marie-Louise; and later on a pedestal-supported tazza bearing the inscription 'Thomire a Paris' (see J. Niclausse, Thomire, Paris, 1947 pl. 24); and S. Jervis, Art and Design 1800-1900, London, 1987 pp30-31).