Large ormolu mounted Sévres style porcelain 'Napoleonic' vase

This fine vase is crafted from Sèvres style porcelain and ormolu, or gilt bronze, in the Empire style—a fitting stylistic choice given its Napoleonic theme.

The vase is of traditional ovoid form, its body raised above an ormolu spacer atop a porcelain socle, which in turn is supported by an ormolu base. The vase culminates in a waisted porcelain neck surmounted by a domed porcelain cover, which is adorned with an ormolu pinecone finial. The body is mounted with twin ormolu handles, each distinctly Neoclassical in form.

The body of the vase is painted in the round with a continuous landscape scene. The painting portrays the Battle of Austerlitz, when Napoleon defeated the Russian and Austrian armies, led by Emperor Alexander I and the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II. Napoleon is portrayed on Marengo, his white horse, amidst his lieutenants and troops.

The cobalt blue porcelain throughout is finely parcel gilt with classicising motifs: the socle is adorned with laurel wreaths and anthemia, the neck with an Empire style eagle, and the cover with a large crowned ‘N’ contained within a laurel wreath, the gilding of each finely finished with subtle tooling.

The painting is signed ‘H. Desprez / Sevres’, while the inside of the cover is marked with a spurious Sèvres mark.

The vase can be paired with a confirming porcelain pedestal, which can be found here.