THE PORCELAIN SECOND HALF 19TH CENTURY, THE MOUNTS THIRD QUARTER 19TH CENTURY

The fashion for mounting Chinese and Japanese porcelain in ormolu mounts reached its zenith under the Parisian marchands-merciers of the mid-18th century, as their the floral, scrolling porcelain complimented the curves and scrolls of the rococo style. Revived from the mid-19th century, grandiose torchères of this type were also fashionable with America's early captains of industry and 'Robber Barons', who lavishly furnished their palatial residences in the French taste. A large pair of ormolu-mounted Imari ‘candelabra’ are illustrated in The Great Room at Lynnwood Hall, the Philadelphia residence of P.A.B Widener (M. C. Kathrens, American Splendor: The Residential Architecture of Horace Trumbauer, New York, 2002, p. 66). Another pair of torchères, closely related to those at the Widener residence, sold at Christie’s, London, 8 July 2010, lot 182 (£151,250). Another pair of vases of near identical construction and by Maison Giroux sold at Christie’s, London, 22 March 2001, lot 215.