A PAIR OF EMPIRE ORMOLU-MOUNTED AND PATINATED BRONZE EWERS

ATTRIBUTED TO CLAUDE GALLE, CIRCA 1805

Details

A PAIR OF EMPIRE ORMOLU-MOUNTED AND PATINATED BRONZE EWERS
ATTRIBUTED TO CLAUDE GALLE, CIRCA 1805
Each with an ovoid body, the handle modelled as a classical winged nymph, the spouts with foliate masks above a rope-twist bordered waist mounted with serpents and winged sphinxes, below a frieze of alternating anthemion and acanthus leaves on an integral waisted socle and verdo antico plinth base, the undersides of the bases with indistinct inventory numbers in red '1008-7411' and '1008-7544' (?), repatinated and refreshment to the gilding
24¼ in. (61.5 cm.) high (2)

Provenance

Acquired by Sir Sydney Barratt from Mallett at Bourdon House, and by descent.

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Lot Essay

The design of these ewers is confidently attributed to the bronzier Claude Galle in H. Ottomeyer, P. Proeschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I, p. 364, fig. 5.12.6. Its design seems to have found particular favour amongst Russian and English collectors and was made with patinated-bronze bodies, raised on either marble or ormolu plinths, and sometimes embellished with further classical figures in relief to the bodies of the urns. Related examples include the pair in the Württemberg Landesmuseum, Stuttgart; another at the palace of Pavlovsk, St. Petersburg; another pair formerly in the collection of the Earls of Essex, Cassiobury Park in the 19th century, almost certainly that sold from the Ojjeh Collection, Christie's Monaco, 11-12 December 1999, lot 153 (264,000 FFr.); and another pair at the Palace of Ostankino, Moscow.

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