Pair of large ormolu mounted Sèvres style vases

This superb pair of vases is crafted from Sèvres style porcelain mounted with ormolu. The vases are designed in the Neoclassical style: each vase features a bulbous body set above a waisted porcelain socle and spreading circular foot, while each culminates above in a curved neck topped with a cover.

The body of each vase is painted in the round with scenes of idyllic country life: groups of figures cavort on the fronts, enjoying the bounty of harvest, while on the reverse of each is painted a landscape scene. The painterly manner is fluid and accomplished, and the style recalls eighteenth-century French painting. The socles of each feature cobalt blue ground parcel gilt with classicising foliate motifs, while the circular foot of each is set above an ormolu base with chamfered corners. The necks of the vases feature the same royal blue ground and are fluted and parcel gilt with foliage filled cartouches. Each vase features twin ormolu handles, each issuing from a foliate mount and terminating in a lyre-form loop, and each is topped with a domed cover surmounted by an ormolu finial.

The painted scenes are signed, and the underside of the bases feature spurious underglaze blue marks for Sèvres.