A PAIR OF EMPIRE ORMOLU AND PATINATED BRONZE EWERS

The slender and elongated shape of these ewers, with their griffin handles accentuating deeply scrolled spouts, has been linked to the bronziers André-Antoine Ravrio (1759-1814) and Claude Galle (1759-1815), both of whom flourished during the Empire. An 1812 portrait by Henri-François Riesener depicting Ravrio standing by a griffin-headed ewer closely related to the present lot, is in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (ill. in H. Ottomeyer & P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I, p. 690, fig. 16), while further related examples include a pair of ormolu ewers from the Wildentstein Collection, sold at Christie's, London, 14-15 December 2005, lot 368, and another attributed to Ravrio, the body similarly applied in relief with a winged maiden, offered at Sotheby's, London, 8 July 2008, lot 220. H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel illustrate a related pair probably by Galle (Ibid, p. 364, fig. 5.12.6), while A. de Gourcuff illustrates a further pair in (ed.), Pavlovsk: The Palace and the Park, Paris, 1993, p. 121.