Pair of Cloisonné Vases, French, circa 1880

Signed F. Barbedienne on the mount. Charming pair of small curved-shaped vases in patinated and gilded bronze and polychrome cloisonné enamel decorated with flowers and birds. With ...

Pair of Greek style vases made two patina bronze. Each, designed in the shape of a tripod amphora adorned with Hercules heads, is decorated in low-relief...

Pair of porcelain, cloisonné and bronze vases, France, around 1900 Pair of Sevres porcelain vases with bronze, cloisonne, hand painted with a beautiful flower design and both the bas...

This is an antique decorative vase. A French, cloisonné baluster urn, dating to the Victorian period of the late 19th century, circa 1880. P...

Signed F. Barbedienne A pair of charming trumpet-shaped vases in gilt bronze with a polychrome cloisonné enamel decoration, one blue and the other green and red. They feature two annular handles and stand on four feet surmounted by a stylized palm. The vases are ornated with a Byzantine decoration. The high quality of the enamel is typical of Barbedienne’s production. It enhances this pair of vases especially with the wide range of colours used to create the decoration. The enamel is smooth and shiny and shows many shades to form the Byzantine decoration. The partitioned cloisonné is finely engraved and contributes to the decoration by adopting vegetal and foliage shapes. The Model These two vases can be linked to a vase presented by Ferdinand Barbedienne at the 1862 London Universal Exhibition and purchased at this time by the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Inv. 8026-1862). This vase has on its belly a polychrome cloisonné enamel decoration standing out against a turquoise background as show these vases. This decoration, called Byzantine, covers all the vase with coloured arabesques and scrolls. It rests on four claw feet with lion heads from a design near of our vases. Barbedienne and the Cloisonné Enamel Ferdinand Barbedienne continously innovated and he revived the use of enamel on art works during the second half of the 19th century. The Sèvres Manufacture enamel workshop had ever tried it in 1854-1855, but Barbedienne was the one who succeeded to join enamel to an industrial decorative objects production. From 1858 “At Mr Barbedienne’s, enamels in copper ornaments have got their former prestige back” (Les bronzes de la Maison Barbedienne, C. Simon, in L’Art du XIXe siècle, 1858, n°21, p. 252). The Barbedienne Company had now an enamel workshop where objects ornamented with oriental style or medieval style enamels were made. Four years after, Barbedienne’s cloisonné...

Pair of French porcelain cornucopia vases, circa 1880.