Description:

A Palatial Fine Pair of French Louis XV style Ormolu-Mounted Rouge
Marble Urns with Covers, Circa 1870.

Height: 25in. (63.5cm.)

REF: A698

Each with gadrooned lid with acanthus-wrapped pomegranate finial, the similarly-gadrooned body with rocaille 'C'-scroll handles to either side set with a tight bunch of bulrushes and below an acanthus leaf rim, the waisted foot set to the square leaf tip-moulded stepped plinth by four rocaille acanthus clasps.

This of urns are copies of a single example carved in porphyry, formerly in the collection of the Duc de Tallard. At the sale of Tallard's collection in 1756, the vase was purchased for 5,001 livres by the marquis de Marigny, brother of Madame de Pompadour. Following the death of his sister, Marigny lost his position as directeur général des Bâtiments, together with the sumptuously decorated hôtel that came with it, and the vase, together with other contents, were purchased from him by the Crown. Later displayed in the Salon du Premier Consul at the Tuileries, where it remained through to the end of the Second Empire, the vase is now in the collection of the Louvre.