9524 A French Louis XVI style gilt bronze mounted Qianlong vase, the relief moulded vase decorated with four raised panels of figures in landscapes, pierced rim mount with satyr head handles and supported on a base with ram’s head legs on a shaped square base.
French or English
1800 (porcelain 1760)
Height: 11.5 ins (29 cms)
Width: 6.5 ins (16.5 cms) £4,500
Description
As with many gilt bronze mounted porcelain objects, the original function of the porcelain has been entirely disguised in the process. At the centre of this vase is a Chinese export, rectangular bodied tea-pot decorated in Mandarin style circa 1765. The handle and spout have been removed, possibly as a result of breakage, the remains filed down and covered by satyr mask handles. The filter holes for the spout can still be seen inside! This body was then mounted on a rectangular base with rams head supports and given a finely pierced rim, probably originally with a gilt bronze lid.
Mounted pieces in the taste of Louis XVI were very popular in England at the end of the 18th and the very beginning of the 19th century. The market for French decorative arts had possibly never been stronger with wealthy British buyers who were buying at the Revolutionary auctions and later dispersals in Paris and also in London. Many French dealers had relationships with dealers and auctioneers in London, some even had premises in order to liquidate stock which had become impossible to sell in the turmoil of post Revolutionary Paris.
The manufacture of this vase would seem to be from the very early nineteenth century, having a fanciful design to the handles which can be seen on English made bronzes and it is very possible that it was made in London to service this growing market.
