POSSIBLY LATE 17TH/EARLY 18TH CENTURY

Porphyry has been prized since antiquity for its lustrous colour (the word derives from the Greek for purple) and remarkable hardness. Only mined at Mons Porphyrius in Egypt, the existence of porphyry in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries was only possible through the resourceful and economical re-use of this most valued of hardstones - most often from ancient classical columns. Its rich purple colour, the Imperial symbol of power, was no doubt of special significance in ancient Rome. With the rediscovery of classical Rome in the Renaissance period, the potent symbolism of porphyry was prized once again, and it was avidly collected by powerful figures such as the Medicis, Louis XIV (who had a buying agent in Rome for his acquisitions), and the cardinals de Richelieu and Mazarin. The taste for exotic stones was again revived in the late Louis XV and Louis XVI period, when the duc d'Aumont, a noted connoisseur-collector, established a workshop at the hôtel des Menus-Plaisirs to cut and polish precious marbles and hard-stones, under the direction of the architect François-Joseph Bélanger and the Italian stone-cutter Augustin Bocciardi.

Although no direct prototype for the design of this vase has been traced, the male mask frieze flanked by scrolling rinceaux foliage recalls ormolu mounts employed by the ébéniste André-Charles Boulle as well as those found in neoclassical vases of the late 18th century. The use of zoomorphic handles, which in the present vase consist of dolphins emblematic of the Dauphin - the title given to the heir apparent of the throne of France - follow in the tradition of Roman porphyry vases of the 17th century, such as: a pair with dog handles commissioned for Louis XIV in Rome, and received in March 1685 for the Hall of Mirrors of the Château de Versailles (inv. nos. MR2837-2838); and a single vase with similar carved handles by Giovani Battista Pozzi dated 1684 in the Wallace Collection (Inv. F362), illustrated in D. Del Bufalo, Porphyry, Turin, 2012, p. 152-3, figs. V99 and V110 respectvely. A late 17th century porphyry vase with a dolphin finial, presumed to have been in the collection of the Grand Dauphin and later in the collection of Jacques Garcia, sold Sotheby’s Paris, 16 June 2020, lot 4 (200,000 EUR). The carving of the present vase also relates to a pair of vases with ram's heads now in the Musée national de la Renaissance, Château d'Écouen (Inv. OA9127-9228), illustrated in D. Del Bufalo, Op. cit. p. 152, fig. V97. It is nevertheless interesting to note that the porphyry type of the present vase - which displays large pinkish spots of feldspars - is not typical of Roman production but more commonly associated with the work of Milanese and Florentine workshops of the late 17th century.

The present vase is likely to have entered the de Rothschild's collection as part of the large acquisitions conducted by Baron Lionel de Rothschild and his son Alfred de Rothschild (1842-1918), for their properties at 1 Seamore Place, London and Halton House, Buckinghamshire, in the second half of the 19th century. The small repair to the socle, executed in rouge griotte marble indigenous to France, is typical of restorations executed in France in the early 19th century. This might also indicate the date and origin of the associated square plinth, as it is cut in a far sharper way than the softer carving of the vase body. The French nature of these restorations could suggest that the vase was purchased by one of the family's agents in France.