A Pair of ormolu and lapis blue lacquered vases,... Lot 167

A Pair of ormolu and lapis blue lacquered vases, decorated with a frieze of antique women flanked by figures of women supporting the neck with acanthus leaves and canals, resting on a fluted pedestal with a laurel leaf crown. Late 18th-early 19th century, circa 1800. H: 40 cm, D: 27 cm Provenance: André Mavon Gallery, Paris, located at 238 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in the 1960s-1970s. The idea of a woman draped in the antique style supporting the neck of a vase can be found in Pierre-Philippe Thomire's work, notably on the sides of the famous monumental vase in Sèvres porcelain, patinated bronze and gilded bronze, made in 1783 and preserved in the Louvre Museum in Paris (the perimeter of the vase is also adorned with a frieze of antique women). The invention of this ornament must in all likelihood be attributed to the sculptor Louis-Simon Boizot, whose creations were used as models by the bronze workers Rémond, Thomire and Gouthière. Let us also quote, practically contemporary of our vases, the model of clock-vase with caryatids (very close to ours) which one finds alternatively attributed to Claude Galle or Pierre-Philippe Thomire, without any objective element to support it (P. Kjellberg, Encyclopédie de la pendule française, Paris, 1997, p. 327).