A PAIR OF GEORGE III BLUE-JOHN AND WHITE MARBLE SOLID URNS

This mantelpiece-garniture of plinth-supported and richly figured urns have bodies shaped as eggs that evoke Ovid's Metamorphoses and the history of Jupiter and Leda. This was a popular vase form in the ormolu-enriched manufactures, such as the bacchic 'goat-head' urns, executed around 1770 by Matthew Boulton (N. Goodison, Ormolu: The Work of Matthew Boulton, London, 1974, fig. 163, no. F).