CIRCA 1830

The number 128 placed under the crowned letters ‘TU’, which appears on these vases, refers to the 1833 inventory of the Palais des Tuileries drawn up following Louis Philippe I’s takeover of power in 1830 (National Archives AJ19 169). The inventory entry for this number describes ‘Two Medici Vases in chased bronze representing two subjects, one the Sacrifice of Iphigenie, and the other a Bacchanal’, and locates these in the waiting chamber leading to the King’s cabinet. The room, one of the most important royal chambers in the palace, is described at length in the inventory, which outlines its grandiose decor featuring three pairs of curtains in 15/16 white, framed with wide borders of a crimson and gold buttercup ground, with twisted fringes of yellow silk. The furniture mentioned, in turn, comprised four gilt wood chairs upholstered in yellow leather and eighteen folding chairs, also gilt, and upholstered in Beauvais tapestry, two gilt-bronze tripods, a mahogany table with griffin and caryatid supports, and two mahogany consoles. The room was lit by a chandelier with twenty-four lights, along with two candelabra and six candlesticks. Finally, to accompany the pair of vases, were four ormolu vases and a tear shaped vase in Sèvres blue porcelain.

There is a striking element of originality in the form of these vases, which differ from the usual Medici model, by virtue of their uncommon bacchanal iconography, and exotic use of elephants. These rare features seem to have confused those responsible for the 1833 inventory, which miscatalogues the scenes as the Sacrifice of Iphigenie, rather than identifying them as a more probable allegory for the foundation of a city.