A PAIR OF LOUIS XVI ORMOLU-MOUNTED PARIS GILT-CAILLOUTE GREEN-GROUND PORCELAIN VASE CANDELABRA

The mounts which adorn this beautiful pair of vases can be found variously on vases, candelabra and other ornaments in the goût étrusque dating from circa 1780-85. The bacchic vine-wrapped thrysus to the centre features on a three-light candelabrum of circa 1780, in the form of a Bacchante in the manner of Clodion holding aloft a thrysus, which is in the Wallace Collection, London (H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel, et. al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I, p. 285, fig. 4.14.13). The spirally-fluted and foliate cast branches also feature on a pair of candelabra formed of caryatid figures carrying baskets on their heads now in the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio (ibid., p. 284, fig. 4.14.9). A related pair of vases with the same shape to the body of the vase, the same socle below stiff-leaves, matted square base, spirally-twisted shoulders, leaf rim and goat's mask handles, but with lily-spray candle-branches, was with Partridge (Partridge - Recent Acquisitions, 1997, pp. 114-5, no. 47); a further pair, also of Paris hard-paste porcelain decorated with flowers, and converted to lamps, was sold from the Collection of a Lady, Christie's London, 10 December 2009, lot 590; and a further pair of the same model as the Partridge pair, but with the bodies in alabaster rather than porcelain, was offered anonymously at Sotheby's Monaco, 15 June 1996, lot 201.