Napoleon I Empire Encrier, Gilt Bronze and Verde Antico, Signed Basil, 1830

Great fun for a gardening afficionado - a delightful desk accessory wether you're planning a beautiful garden, tending a beehive, ordering new seeds for the season or wish for a an uplifting reminder at your work space of the bounty and beauty of nature... France, 19th century This fabulous antique French gilt bronze inkstand has a beehive central well with a hay stack cover, several bees on the surface, flanked by two bronze baskets with covers laden with fruit, flowers and wheat sheaves, at the base of one sits a bird leaning over a large basket with a container for sand in the shape of a large bunch of wheat tied with a rope and a bird perched on top as a cover. The back of this fantasy is composed of a group of garden implements which include a sickle, a spade, a trowel, a scythe, ring pliers and a pitch fork tied with an attractive bow and hung with garlands of flowers, masses of grapes, wheat forming a support for a quill. The base designed as naturalistic wood logs topped with rustic wood...

Superb pair of antique French Empire period gilt bronze figural three light sconces Circa 1830 Striking figural sconces originally created for use with oil, now electified. This beau...