AN EMPIRE ORMOLU CENTREPIECE
拍品 85 THE PROPERTY OF A EUROPEAN NOBLEMAN

AN EMPIRE ORMOLU CENTREPIECE

BY PIERRE-PHILIPPE THOMIRE, FIRST QUARTER 19TH CENTURY

已結束2010年7月8日

成交價

GBP 27,500

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AN EMPIRE ORMOLU CENTREPIECE
BY PIERRE-PHILIPPE THOMIRE, FIRST QUARTER 19TH CENTURY
With two winged Nike figures holding aloft a pierced oval basket, each resting on a foliate-wrapped sphere, above a stepped square plinth centred by fruit-filled classical urns and joined by a foliate-cast shaped stretcher with floral medallion, each plinth signed 'THOMIRE A PARIS'
26¼ in. (66.5 cm.) high; 24 in. (61 cm.) wide; 7¾ in. (20 cm.) deep

By tradition given by Emperor Napoleon as part of a 75-piece suite of table decoration to Prince Clemens von Metternich (1773-1859), by whom most probably given to ministerial counsel Baron Paul Anton von Handel. By descent to the Counts Pachta.

專家說明

This impressive centre de table, featuring winged maidens, or Nike figures, emblematic of Victory, was executed circa 1810 by the maître fondeur-ciseleur Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751-1843, maître in 1772).

As with the present lot, most of the recorded centrepieces of this type by Thomire have been linked to the Bonaparte family. A virtually identical example, almost certainly supplied to Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples and later King of Spain, was sold at Christie's, London, 4 July 1996, lot 233, while another, formerly in the collection of the Grand Duke of Baden (married to Stéphanie de Beauharnais, niece of Empress Joséphine and Napoléon's adopted daughter) was sold at Sotheby's, London, 13 December 1991, lot 290.

Further related examples include a centrepiece sold at Sotheby's, London, 7 December 2005, lot 286 (£54,000 with premium), and another in the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon (ill. in H. Ottomeyer & P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I., p.382, fig. 5.16.1).