.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The distinctive shape of the vase, its decoration and particularly the head of the winged cherub on the pedestal are closely related to the documented oeuvre of the bronzier Antoine-Philippe Pajot (1730-1781). Elected maître fondeur-ciseleur in 1765 by privilège of the Hôpital de la Trinité in Paris, Pajot's workshop was first located in the atelier of the ébéniste, Pierre Macret in the Grande Rue du Faubourg St Antoine, but after 1766 he was established in a house belonging to the marquise de la Bruyère in the rue Bar-du-Bec in the parish of Saint-Merry.
Pajot, like Caffieri and J.J.de Saint-Germain, was primarily a ciseleur who conceived and signed his models but who had them made by his contemporaries Franois Virgile, Jean-Jacques Gosset and, above all, la veuve Forestier. Franois Fagard carried out most of the gilding.
Pajot's output falls into three different categories: furniture mounts (supplieed notably to Adrien Delorme, Antoine Gosselin, Jean-Franois Leleu, Pierre Macret and Pierre Pionez), bronzes d'ameublement, and mounted porcelain, glass, rock crystal and hardstones.
The same winged cherub-mask featured on the ormolu-mounted porcelain vase - later revealed to be signed 'PAJOT' - acquired by Baron Alphonse de Rothschild for the château de Ferrières and sold by Baron Guy de Rothschild at Sotheby's Monaco, 3 December 1994, lot 91.
Related pairs of chenets by Pajot include those cast with urns and serpents sold in Paris, Brochu, 6 March 1923 and those, with laurel garlands from the collection of Guy Laroche, sold Paris, 6 July 1989, lot 50 . Other examples of bronzes signed by Pajot include a clock in the collection of H.M. The Queen; a pair of three-branch wall-lights cast with head of Hercules sold in Paris, Leblanc, 8 November 1984 and subsequently at Sotheby's New York, 4 May 1985, lot 172; a pair of twin-branch wall-lights with rams'-heads sold Sotheby's London, 30 November 1984, lot 172; a pair of three-branch wall-lights cast with laurel garlands in the Onslow colection, château d'Aulteribes; and a pair of Louis XVI ormolu-mounted cut-glass vases sold from the Elisabeth Parke Firestone Collection, 22-23 March 1991, lot 868 ($ 198,000).
Pajot, like Caffieri and J.J.de Saint-Germain, was primarily a ciseleur who conceived and signed his models but who had them made by his contemporaries Franois Virgile, Jean-Jacques Gosset and, above all, la veuve Forestier. Franois Fagard carried out most of the gilding.
Pajot's output falls into three different categories: furniture mounts (supplieed notably to Adrien Delorme, Antoine Gosselin, Jean-Franois Leleu, Pierre Macret and Pierre Pionez), bronzes d'ameublement, and mounted porcelain, glass, rock crystal and hardstones.
The same winged cherub-mask featured on the ormolu-mounted porcelain vase - later revealed to be signed 'PAJOT' - acquired by Baron Alphonse de Rothschild for the château de Ferrières and sold by Baron Guy de Rothschild at Sotheby's Monaco, 3 December 1994, lot 91.
Related pairs of chenets by Pajot include those cast with urns and serpents sold in Paris, Brochu, 6 March 1923 and those, with laurel garlands from the collection of Guy Laroche, sold Paris, 6 July 1989, lot 50 . Other examples of bronzes signed by Pajot include a clock in the collection of H.M. The Queen; a pair of three-branch wall-lights cast with head of Hercules sold in Paris, Leblanc, 8 November 1984 and subsequently at Sotheby's New York, 4 May 1985, lot 172; a pair of twin-branch wall-lights with rams'-heads sold Sotheby's London, 30 November 1984, lot 172; a pair of three-branch wall-lights cast with laurel garlands in the Onslow colection, château d'Aulteribes; and a pair of Louis XVI ormolu-mounted cut-glass vases sold from the Elisabeth Parke Firestone Collection, 22-23 March 1991, lot 868 ($ 198,000).