A FRENCH ORMOLU-MOUNTED GREEN SERPENTINE URN AND COVER

This vase is after the celebrated model commissioned by Louis-Marie-Augustine, 5th duc d'Aumont (1709-1782), premiere valet de Chambre du roi, for the hôtel d'Aumont, Place Louis XV, Paris. Executed in green serpentine cut by the Genoese sculptor Augustine Bocciardi (fl. 1760-1790) and mounted in ormolu by the ciseleur-doreur Pierre Gouthiere (maître in 1758), they were included in the sale of the duc d'Aumont's collection on 12-21 December 1782, conducted by the marchands-merciers P.F. Tulliot and A.J. Paillet and acquired by Louis XVI himself for the museum he planned to establish at the Louvre where they remain to this day (P. Verlet, Les Bronzes dorés Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1987, p. 351).