Napoleon III Gilt-Bronze and Cloisonné Enamel Jardinière on White Onyx Base

A very fine quality renaissance revival gilt-bronze and champlevé planter, with oval bowl and caryatid handles, a regal mask head to either side and ...

Contained within three monopod legs continuing to a triangular platform base. Origin: French Date: 19th century Dimension: 25 1/2 in x 19 in.

A Sèvres porcelain and gilt bronze bonbonnière, 19th century. A Sèvres porcelain and gilt bronze bonbonniere, 19th century, Napoleon III period. H: 27cm, W: 21cm, D: 18cm

The large central circular form cloisonne enamel jardinière decorated with vari colored plum flowers and butterflies on a blue ground, with a pierced ormolu rim featuring a pineapple motif resting on a finely cast ormolu base with four legs in the form of winged Foo lions. The ormolu French, the enamel Chinese. This impressive jardinie`re is very much in the manner of objects in enamel produced by Ferdinand Barbedienne in Paris in the last quarter of the 19th century which proved universally popular. Often these pieces were designed by Edouard Lievre (d. 1886) in the Oriental taste. Ferdinand Barbedienne was a famous French metal worker and manufacturer. He presided over one of the most renowned and prolific foundries of Belle Époque Paris. His atelier created sculptures, clocks and bronze mounts of the highest quality, and his works were shown at numerous international exhibitions of the period, where he was rewarded with many medals. Among them the Grande Me´daille d'Honneur, in Paris in 1855 is particularly noteworthy. In 1838 he associated with the engineer Achille Collas (1795-1859) who had just invented a process to reproduce statues at a smaller scale. Together they founded in 1839 the company "Collas et Barbedienne" to reproduce casts of both contemporary artists and Greek and Roman antiquities. While working with Collas, Barbedienne actively pursued contracts with many sculptors of Paris contracting with David D'Angers, Jean-Baptiste Clesinger, and even producing some casts for Antoine Louis Barye as well as others. From 1860 to the years 1890, Barbedienne, eager to research new processes, experimented new techniques in champleve´ and cloisonne´-enamels, to compete with Japanese importations, very fashionable then. When Collas died in 1859, the business was left to Barbedienne as sole owner. The company who had over 300 employees was prosperous as well in the field of reproductions as in its department specialized in the casting of monumental bronzes. In 1865, he was appointed President of the Reunion of Bronze Makers until 1885. After the 1870 war...