Italian Carved and Gilt Half Round Corinthian Column with Painted Back Panel

Pair of neoclassical style paint decorated atheniennes.

A Chinese four-legged barrel-form brass urn cast and engraved with archaistic decoration from the 20th century. The gently rounded sides are cast with the dispersed elements of two taotie masks, Archaistic auspicious beasts formed by a pair of stylized and confronted dragons which constitutes the features of this mythical creature, abstractly rendered in low-relief hooked curls. Two bands of kui or passing dragons flank the taotie ornamentation on the belly, all upon an engraved and very finely delineated white leiwen ground symbolizing thunder. Raised on four atlantes with a few anatomical engraved details, the urn possesses a flat circular lid decorated with stylized birds and topped with a phoenix-shaped knob with a ring, a propitious symbol in Chinese art. The white engraved ground nicely contrasting with the dark patina along with the Archaistic traditional low relief decoration echoes Chinese archaic ritual bronzes used in ceremonies or buried in the tombs of the elites for use in the afterlife. This Chinese barrel...

19th century French Neoclassical tole peinte decorative column with acanthus leaf capital. The unusual and very attractive lattice work column painted dark green with gilt bosses, topped by a Corinthian capital. The capital and base are brass...

This 17th-century Solomonic column, adorned with gilt carvings and a well-aged polychrome finish, boasts a fantastic patina, though it shows some documented loss in areas, as seen in...