Good Pair of Antique Marble and Gilded Bronze Cassolettes

Pair of 19th Century Marble & Bronze Cassolettes make an excellent choice for providing beauty, elegance and symmetry to any room! Such decorative items were created for the affluen...

Royal House Antiques Royal House Antiques is delighted to offer for sale this absolutely exquisite pair of 1870 Grand Tour Bronze, Gilt Bronze and Marble Bacchahalia Cassolettes after Cloudio A very finely cast and finished pair of Napoleon III period vasiform urns, they are an exquisite sand-cast creation utilizing bronze and gilt bronze to create an extraordinary contrast between materials. The body of the vase is rich in a dark-brown patina that positively glows around the bas-relief Bacchanalia scene of putto playing a tug-of-war type game, carrying wine glasses and bunches of grapes and one walking with a thrysus raised over his shoulder while roaring animal heads flank either end with polished bronze garlands of water-leaves and berries draped between. The lids and necks are crafted of gilt bronze, which gives a cooler tone to the brilliant shine of the metal. The urns are raised over a shaped marble base and finished over a polished bronze rim affixed on the underside with slotted screws. After the models by Claude Michel Clodion. For those of you that are unaware the “Grand Tour” was something educated young people did in the 18th and 19th century to learn and further educate themselves on other cultures, they would pick up small medium and large trinkets as memories of the journey which would sit in pride of place in their library or study as conversation pieces when friends and relatives would visit, they basically proved you were well educated, well travelled and a person of culture. These pair are large, decorative and very important looking pieces of Italian Grand Tour art...