This lot is closely related to one of the thirteen different pairs of urns made for the marble parapets separating the Parterre du Nord from the Parterre du Midi at Versailles, where they are still in position. Claude Ballin (1615-1678), goldsmith to Louis XIV, was comissioned to design the urns which were then moulded by Legendre, Magnire, Tuby and Anguier and cast by Duval after 1665. Beginning in the mid-19th Century, the urns were copied in various reduced sizes and mediums.