A pair of Sèvres vases mounted by Thomire

A pair of late Louis XVI gilt bronze-mounted Royal Sèvres manufactory blue porcelain vases
cornets à monter, the mounts attributed to Thomire – circa 1790

Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751-1843), maître in 1772

Height: 34.2 cm. (13 ½ in.) Width: 14.5 cm. (5 ¾ in.)
Width and depth of base: 8 cm. (3 ¼ in.)

Provenance
Sold Christie’s Paris, 21 June 2006, lot 328

The vases belong to the production at Sèvres of vases à monter, intended to be enriched with gilt bronze mounts. They were initially sold in the 1770s exclusively to Parisian marchands-merciers who then arranged the mounts. As with this pair, vases à monter were never marked, so that a marchand-mercier could, once mounted, pass them off as Chinese porcelain. However, Sèvres soon brought this element of production in-house, with Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751-1843) assuming the role as the manufacture’s bronzier. Thomire was amongst the most celebrated bronzier-ciseleurs of the period and these mounts with their delicately chased details and rich gilding are typical of his work in the mid-1780s.

The most famous examples of this model are the two pairs whose porcelain is decorated with arabesques bought by Louis XVI at the manufacture’s 1786 exhibition and placed in his Cabinet de la pendule at Versailles. Confiscated during the Revolution, one pair was returned to Versailles in 1991, and the other was sold Sotheby’s Paris, 18 October 2006, lot 80.