Exceptional pair of large, classical Royal Vienna porcelain vases

Crafted in Vienna in the late 19th century by the Royal Porcelain manufactory, these exquisite wares are a pair of truly exceptional bronze-mounted porcelain vases, made in a Classical style, and adorned with painted scenes of Greek figures and important historical Athenian figures.

The frieze panels, set against a rich red ground - a rare and highly desirable feature for Royal Vienna vases - and decorated all-over in elaborate gilding show, in the round, a series of some of the most influential Greek thinkers, orators, leaders, and poets, of Classical Greece, c.500-300 BC., with their names painted below. One vase shows the likes of Xenophon and Thucydides (great historians), Diagoras of Rhodes (an Olympian boxing champion), Socrates, Phidias, Sophocles, and others such as Plato, Aspasia, Herodotus, and Pericles. The other includes figures such as Aristotle, Sappho, Aristarchus, Demosthenes, and Theocritus.

The vases also feature bronze-mounted socles, which are inscribed to the upper rim. One such inscription reads, 'Das goldene Zeitalter der griechischen Kultur geschichte n. Rahl,' which translates roughly as 'The Golden Era of Greek Cultural History.' Further signatures include that of Josef Karl Radler (1844-1917), for the bronze mounts, and that of Wilhelm Amandus Beer, (German/Russian, 1837-1907), to the porcelain's base. They also feature the beehive mark on the base.