Paar Louis XVI-Potpourri Vasen

A pair of Louis XVI potpourri vases

Height: 35 cm.
Width: 21 cm.
Paris, ca. 1780.

This rare pair of lidded vases carved from a block of jasper, a variety of chalcedony with a clay-brown colouration and large orange spots. It probably originates from the former quarries in Siberia. The vases feature finely chased, gilt-bronze décor. They are a perfect example of the enthusiasm of the great Parisian art collectors in the last quarter of the 18th century for vessels made of rare marble or semi-precious stones, which they imported at great expense from all over Europe. Jasper was one of the most sought-after types of stone by collectors. In the great tradition of the “marchands merciers”, the most beautiful pieces were therefore mounted in chased gilt-bronze, made by the most skilled Parisian bronze founders of the time. To decorate the vases on offer for sale in this lot, especially the intertwined snakes, the bronze sculptor was inspired by designs by Parisian artists of the time, especially by a design by the bronze founder Jean-Louis Prieur. Similar compositions with snake handles are particularly evident in a pair of vases made of petrified wood held at the Musée Nissim de Camondo in Paris (illustrated in: P. Kjellberg, Objets montés, Paris 2000, p. 145); also in a second pair of vases made of jasper from the Urals held in the collections of the Russian Imperial family and exhibited in Pavlovsk Palace (illustrated in: Pavlovsk, Palace & Park, Leningrad 1975, p. 204); and finally in a pair of jasper goblets formerly held in the collection of Baroness Edouard de Rothschild (Christie’s Paris auction, 21 June 2006, lot 129). Restored.