Empire Vases
EMPIRE STYLE
From 1804–15, Napoléon I reigned as the emperor of France, bringing the country into a new era of opulence after the fall of the monarchy and the tumultuous years of the French Revolution. He declared, “We must have very solid things, made to last 100 years.” Empire-style furniture followed suit, with imposing pieces constructed from mahogany and adorned with gilded ornaments. Expanding on the neoclassicism popularized in the previous century — such as in Louis XVI style — Empire style borrowed from the great civilizations of antiquity, from Egypt to Greece and Rome, to connect this nascent empire to the power of the past.
Napoléon I believed the production of fine furniture would reflect the stature of the republic, with his official architects Charles Percier and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine leading the way with their work on his residences.
Luxurious materials, symmetrical shapes and bold colors characterize antique Empire-style bedroom furniture, armchairs, cabinets and other structures, with frequent motifs including mythological creatures, geometric designs, acanthus leaves, eagles, bees (the imperial emblem) and swans, a favorite of Empress Joséphine.
Flat surfaces, like marble tabletops, were accented with decadent details, such as the bronze furniture mounts made by sculptor Pierre-Philippe Thomire for the French palaces. Martin-Guillaume Biennais, who worked as the imperial goldsmith, crafted intricate luxury objects that mixed wood, fine metal, mother-of-pearl and ivory. Ormolu — or elaborate bronze gilding — was essential to French design in the 18th and 19th centuries as a cornerstone of the neoclassical and Empire styles.
The style became popular abroad, influencing the American Empire style. Stately pieces carved with sprigs of olives by cabinetmaker Pierre-Antoine Bellange were acquired by American President James Monroe for the White House in 1817.
Find a collection of antique Empire tables, lighting, seating and other furniture on 1stDibs.
36
to
6
36
56
36
36
36
3,056
1,215
841
753
602
151
146
131
123
41
40
36
30
27
21
16
14
6
33
3
2
1
Height
to
Width
to
19
19
18
15
9
31
28
3
3
3
3
1
1
1
1
Item Ships From: USA
Style: Empire
19th Century Gilt Bronze and Cut Crystal Cornucopia Vases on Marble Bases, Pair
By Baccarat
Located in Pittsburgh, PA
This pair of neoclassical rython form garnitures are well detailed and finely cut.
Category
Mid-19th Century French Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Bronze
Rare Vieux Paris Tall Vases, Circa:1830
Located in Alexandria, VA
This pair of neoclassic Vieux Paris conical shaped vases have Classical Roman motifs on one side. Portraits on the other side depict an inebriate on one vase and a teetotaler on the ...
Category
Mid-19th Century French Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Porcelain
Mid 19th c. Early French Silvered & Dore Bronze With Honey Alabaster Vase
Located in Louisville, KY
For those with discriminating taste for French antiques, this 19th century French Silvered and Dore Bronze with Honey Alabaster vase is nothing short of magnificent! Created in the style of Edouard Lievre, this vase is masterfully crafted with cast bronze with areas that have been silvered to showcase the intricate detail and texture. The side handles are silvered bronze with wreath hangers. At the base of the honey alabaster stone vase is a cherub face with silvered leaf head...
Category
Mid-19th Century French Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Alabaster, Silver, Bronze
19th Century Pair of Paris Two Handled Vases in Gold and Cobalt Blue.
By Old Paris
Located in Vero Beach, FL
Pair of Paris Two Handled Vases in Gold and Cobalt Blue.
Pair of early 19th century Paris baluster shaped porcelain vases. Elaborately painted on each side with the most intricate p...
Category
Early 19th Century Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Porcelain
Wonderful French Empire Dore Bronze Cut Crystal Figural Neoclassical Centrepiece
Located in Roslyn, NY
A wonderful French Empire doré bronze and cut crystal figural neoclassical centrepiece
Measures: 7.5" W x 8" H.
Category
1920s French Vintage Empire Vases
Materials
Crystal, Bronze
19th - 20th Century Gold-Red French Empire Pair of Porcelain, Gilded Cassoulette
Located in West Palm Beach, FL
A gold-red, antique French pair of small Cassoulettes made hand crafted porcelain, in good condition. Each of the Parisian Athenians are composed with four gilded bronze maidens, par...
Category
Late 19th Century French Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Metal, Bronze
Impt Pair of French Empire Ormolu Covered vases/Potpourris, Att. Thomier A Paris
Located in New York, NY
An Incredible and Rare Pair of 19th Century French Ormolu Covered Potpourris, Attributed to Thomier A Paris. This pair dates to 1810, which is the illustrious French Empire period. These remarkable urns serve as prime examples of the impeccable artistry and superior craftsmanship that characterized the first empire era. Notably, the urns feature figural cherub handles positioned atop rams' heads, engaging in musical endeavors, which adds an alluring touch of sophistication to their design.
The captivating allure of these urns is further enhanced by their meticulously hand-chiseled gilded bronze composition, adorned with a splendid two-tone finish. Standing at an impressive height of 24 inches, these urns exemplify an unwavering dedication to detail. Each urn boasts a main body adorned with elegantly crafted relief dancers...
Category
1810s French Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Ormolu
French Gilded Paris Porcelain Centerpiece w/ Pair Gilded Paris Porcelain Vases
Located in Katonah, NY
We are pleased to offer this elegant three-part group of Paris Porcelain in the Empire style crafted circa 1840.
Dimensions of the basket: 13.75" long x 7.5" wide x 10.75" tall. The basket is 4.75" deep.
Dimensions of the vases: 12.5" tall x 6" across the handles x 4" deep
Condition: Very Good, to Excellent with some touches of gilt invisibly restored on the basket.
Price for the set of three Paris Porcelain pieces: $2,600
The centerpiece is an oval-shaped pierced basket, lavishly gilded with delicate latticework.
The golden Empire style lends an air of grandeur to the design, while the intricate latticework adds a sense of delicacy and allows light to play through. The white line across the top of the base further enhances the richness of the gold, creating a touch of intensity. The long rectangular base harmonizes beautifully with the oval shape, creating a visually balanced composition. With dimensions of 13.75" long x 7.5" wide x 10.75" tall and a depth of 4.75", this basket is perfect as a centerpiece for a formal dining room table...
Category
Mid-19th Century French Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Porcelain
Large Estate Signed Baccarat Empire Harcourt Bronze and Crystal Vase
By Baccarat
Located in New York, NY
Impressive signed Baccarat Empire style bronze and crystal vase.
Beautifully complements the Classic 1841 Harcourt and Empire patterns, similar to the ...
Category
20th Century French Empire Vases
Materials
Crystal, Bronze
Pair of French 19th C.Empire Period Old Paris Porcelain Swan Handle Vases
Located in New York, NY
A fine pair of French 19th century Empire Period Old Paris porcelain swan handle vases. Each is beautifully hand-painted with a green colored ground and further adorned with 24K gold-painted accents around the neck, handles, and bases. The vases are of a slender amphora form with git swan handles and two-tone matte and shiny 24K gold decoration throughout. Each vases body is hand-painted with landscape decoration which depicts a beautiful outdoor gazebo...
Category
1820s French Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Porcelain
Crystal & Gilt Bronze Vase
Located in Atlanta, GA
A Very high quality cut crystal and ormolu gilt bronze, France, by Baccarat, 19th century. Scroll handles featuring classic heads at the bottom.
Dimensions: Height: 12 1/4" Diameter...
Category
1880s French Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Crystal, Bronze
19th Century Bronze Mounted Cut Crystal Vase
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Cut crystal. Bronze mounted. Swan motif. Finely chased. Measure: Base is 3.5" by 3.5".
Category
19th Century French Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Crystal, Bronze
French Empire Style Bronze and Crystal Vases
Located in West Palm Beach, FL
This pair of French Empire vases date from the 19th century and are of exceptional quality. Unfortunately one of the cut crystal vase has been crac...
Category
Late 19th Century French Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Crystal, Bronze
Pair of French 19th Century Old Paris Porcelain Swan Handle Vases, Marked
Located in New York, NY
A fine pair of French 19th century Empire Period Old Paris Porcelain swan handle vases. Each is beautifully hand-painted with a light blue colored ground and further adorned with 24K...
Category
1820s French Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Porcelain
Pr. 19th Century Russian Cobalt Blue & Gold Ground Swan Handle Porcelain Vases
Located in New York, NY
A fantastic quality pair of Russian Empire cobalt blue and gold ground swan handle porcelain vases. Each piece is of Amphora form with a gorgeous 24K gold matted, burnished, and shiny front and backside decoration. The front panels consist of a young girl and a young boy, where the young girl is seen holding food on her head with a water pale in her hand walking through the town, while the boy is seen holding a basket of fruit up and walking it back home. The reverse of each of the vases is also elaborately decorated with one of the scenes being a comfy home with a beautiful woody landscape with a deer running through the backyard, while the other vase has a gorgeous landscape scene with a man riding a horse in the background. On either side of the vases are two-tone matte and burnished 24K gold swan form handles. Underneath the handles are 24K gold hand-painted decorations over a cobalt blue ground. The body runs down a waisted gold neck onto a rounded base which sits on a square gold plinth...
Category
1810s Russian Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Porcelain
Monumental 19th Century French Empire Sèvres Style Porcelain Urns, a Pair
Located in Forney, TX
A magnificent pair of French antique gilt bronze mounted pink Sèvres porcelain style vasiform urns.
Born in France in the 19th century, hand-crafted in rich grandiose Empire taste, palatial awe-inspiring large scale, featuring ornate finely chiseled and sculpted dore' bronze hinged handle mounts, partial gilt pink ground baluster form amphora - pithos form body surmounted by patinated brass final topped cover affixed to the flaired narrowing neck rising from voluptuous bulbous tapering body, embellished with elaborate gilded gold enameled scroll flourish filigree decoration framing central oval medallion showcasing hand painted polychrome classical landscape and pastoral figural scenes, over doré bronze mount fillet adorned porcelain foot ending in substantial sturdy octagonal cast gilt metal plinth base.
A superb example, high quality craftsmanship, construction, and materials, exceptionally executed design, this pair makes for a wonderful decorative object and most impressive statement piece!
Exceedingly rare, boldly beautiful and absolutely stunning, this majestic pair is sure to become the focal point in any room. Placed in beside a fireplace, flanking an door, entry or hall, atop a massive sideboard...
Category
19th Century French Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Brass, Bronze
Richard Klemm Dresden Miniature Porcelain Portrait Cabinet Vase of Antoinette
Located in Guaynabo, PR
This is an excellent high quality porcelain vase. It is depicting a portrait of Antoinette in the center framed with gilt wreath of olives leaves against ...
Category
Late 19th Century German Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Porcelain
Early 19th C. Sicilian Glass Pharmacy Jar Set, 3 Pieces
Located in Ross, CA
Originally handblown in Sicily in the early 19th century, this impressive pharmacy pot incorporates two separate containers and a lid, and would have been...
Category
Early 19th Century Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Blown Glass
Pair French 19th C. Blue & 2-Tone Gold Ground Porcelain Vases w/ Gold Handles
Located in New York, NY
A Beautiful Pair of French 19th Century Empire Blue and Two-Tone Gold Ground Porcelain vases with White Medallion Gold Handles. Each piece is beautifully hand-painted with gorgeous l...
Category
1820s French Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Porcelain
Large French Empire Patinated and Gilt Bronze Footed Bowl
Located in Essex, MA
French Empire bowl with snake handles and beaded edge, reeded shallow bowl, square base with censor and wreath mounts, plinth base.
Category
Early 19th Century European Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Other
Neoclassical Pair of Patinated and Dore Bronze Empire Covered Urns
Located in New York, NY
A gorgeous and rare neoclassical pair of patinated and doré bronze Empire period covered urns with doré bronze cupid masks and foliage scroll doré bronze handles. Each is beautifully...
Category
1820s French Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Bronze
Pair Neoclassical Paris Porcelain Gilt Vases
Located in New York, NY
Pair neoclassical Paris Porcelain gilt vases. Exceptional pair of large white and gilt painted campana form urns with strigilated patterning on body dow...
Category
Early 19th Century French Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Ormolu
Pair Paris Porcelain Golden Mantle Vases Made in France Circa 1830
Located in Katonah, NY
We are pleased to offer this pair of golden Paris Porcelain mantle vases made in the Empire style, circa 1840. The gilding on these vases is dazzling. The delicate band of flowers an...
Category
19th Century French Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Porcelain
Fine Pair of French Gilt Bronze and Glass Ormolu-Mounted Neoclassical Urns
Located in Roslyn, NY
Pair of lovely French empire style bronze and glass urns. Please note, they are blown glass and one is slightly higher than the other. The base measures 3" x 3".
Category
Early 20th Century French Empire Vases
Materials
Bronze
Pair of First-Empire Period 2-Handled Porcelain Vases with Westall Venus Scenes
By Porcelaine de Paris, Richard Westall
Located in New York, NY
An incredible and rare pair of French Paris Porcelain First-Empire Period Winged Sphynx-form double- handled porcelain vases with mythological scenes of Venus and Cupids after Richar...
Category
Early 1800s French Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Porcelain
19th Century Meissen Style Porcelain Napoleon lll Bowl Vase Centerpiece
Located in Guaynabo, PR
This is a gilt bronze mounted and hand painted porcelain large bowl vase with lid. The hand painted continuous scene shows a town celebration with some peasants dancing & playing som...
Category
19th Century German Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Porcelain
Pair of Empire Period Sèvres Porcelain Pale Blue and Faux Porphyry Ground Vases
Located in New York, NY
A very unusual and quite large pair of Empire period Sèvres Porcelain pale Celeste blue and faux porphyry ground vases. Each vase is intricately hand painted with meticulous detail and further adorned with 24-karat hand painted gilt decoration. The bases are a very unusual hand painted faux porphyry porcelain. Each vase and base is marked with various pressnumera and Sèvres signs...
Category
Early 1800s French Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Porcelain
Pair of Empire Gilt Chinoiserie Vases
Located in New York, NY
Pair of Empire gilt chinoiserie vases. Pair hand-painted and gilt French vases of the Empire period with mask handles and gilt surrounds centering on ...
Category
Early 19th Century French Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Porcelain
Magnificent Pair of Russian Imperial Ruby Glass Vases w/ Gilded Bronze Mounts
Located in New York, NY
While Napoleon's armies never conquered Russian, French taste did, and in a big way. This pair made at the Imperial Glass Workshop, under the Sponsorship of the Imperial Family would have been at home in a Paris drawing room as easily as in St. Petersburg.
The Intense Ruby Red color of the Crystal is created by adding large quantities of gold to the molten glass before the object is created. The resulting color is dense yet full of light just like its namesake the precious jewel. The Dore bronze mounts use motifs taken from antiquity. Likewise, the shape of the handles is inspired by Greco-Roman amphora...
Category
19th Century Russian Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Bronze
Pair of 'Old Paris' Porcelain Vases with Drapery Decoration
Located in New York, NY
French
Pair “Old Paris” Porcelain Vases with Drapery Decoration, about 1820
Porcelain, painted and gilded
13 1/16 in. high
CONDITI...
Category
1820s French Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Porcelain
Early 19th Century Gilt Bronze Cut-Glass Centerpiece
Located in New York, NY
Cut-glass centerpiece with gilt bronze mounts. Hair line crack in bowl.
Category
19th Century French Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Bronze
Pair of Neoclassical French Doré Bronze, Patinated Bronze and Rouge Marble Vases
Located in New York, NY
A pair of neoclassical French Empire Period doré Bronze, patinated bronze and Rouge Campana shaped marble vases, circa 1820, with gilt bronze decorations of finely sculpted playful p...
Category
Early 19th Century French Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Marble, Bronze
Pair of Empire Period Porcelain Campana Vases, Parisian, circa 1815
Located in Atlanta, GA
A fine pair of Paris porcelain vases, designed in campana form with the front featuring circular vignettes with landscape scenes, on the reverse are framed musical trophies created t...
Category
19th Century French Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Porcelain
Paris Porcelain Vase with Landscape Scene, France c. 1820
Located in Atlanta, GA
A large Paris porcelain vase of good quality, almost two feet in height. The body with painted figural and landscape vignettes on opposing sides, contained by acid-etched gilt border...
Category
Early 19th Century French Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Porcelain
19th Century Pair of French Empire Style Glass Cornucopia Vases
Located in WEST PALM BEACH, FL
This is an elegant pair of French Empire style glass cornucopia vases, situated on white marble bases, 19th century.
Category
Late 19th Century French Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Marble
Empire Ormolu-Mounted Malachite Ewers Attributed to Claude Galle, Russian, Pair
By Claude Galle
Located in New York, NY
A pair of Empire Ormolu-Mounted Malachite Ewers attributed to Claude Galle, circa 1805, Possibly Made For The Russian Market. Each with an ovoid body applied with an ormolu band depi...
Category
Early 1800s Russian Antique Empire Vases
Materials
Malachite, Bronze
Empire vases for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a broad range of unique Empire vases for sale on 1stDibs. Many of these items were first offered in the Late 20th Century, but contemporary artisans have continued to produce works inspired by this style. If you’re looking to add vintage vases created in this style to your space, the works available on 1stDibs include decorative objects, serveware, ceramics, silver and glass, asian art and furniture and other home furnishings, frequently crafted with metal, ceramic and other materials. If you’re shopping for used Empire vases made in a specific country, there are Europe, France, and Germany pieces for sale on 1stDibs. While there are many designers and brands associated with original vases, popular names associated with this style include Europa Antiques, Porcelaine de Paris, Old Paris, and Baccarat. It’s true that these talented designers have at times inspired knockoffs, but our experienced specialists have partnered with only top vetted sellers to offer authentic pieces that come with a buyer protection guarantee. Prices for vases differ depending upon multiple factors, including designer, materials, construction methods, condition and provenance. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $416 and tops out at $126,260 while the average work can sell for $5,700.
Recently Viewed
View AllMore Ways To Browse
Green Glazed Japanese Vase
Antique Moss Green
Antique Depose
Japanese Green Blue Vessels
Antique Painted Bird Vase
Tall Narrow Vases
Antique Bathroom Scale
Napoleon Iii Sevres
Cut Glass Small Vase
Antique Green Pair Vases
Pair Of Opaline Vases
Blue Gold Leaf Vase
Large Cased Glass Vases
Fat Lava Scheurich
Just Andersen Bronze
Iridescent Feather
Green Cylindrical Vase
Dark Pink Decorative Objects