Antique 1810 Paris Empire Milieu De Table Paws Gilt Bronze Mirror Centrepiece

This beautiful beechwood trumeau features fine carvings of two columns and a basquet filled with fruit and flowers. The high relief woodwork is partially guilt and has retained it's ...

Charming and elegant shelves made out of cast iron. The front of this slim piece of furniture and the struts are decorated with flowers.

This elegant Russian games and console table was made in st Petersburg circa 1810. It has ben crafted out of mahogany and is decorated with fine brass banding.The table is convertibl...

Elegant and versatile piece of furniture made in circa 1810. In England out of Gonzalo Alvas wood. This charming chiffonière is attributed to George Oakley (1773-1840). Lit. Diction...

This beautiful head of Hermes wearing his winged helmet is carved out of boxwood and has preserved the original gilding. The head is mounted on a blacke...

We admire a very expressive sculpture of the ancient god of all the seas, Poseidon, standing proud and confident on a wave, holding a trident in his right hand. Edmont Moirignot (Pa...

Empire style gilt bronze and mirror surtout de table centrepiece French, 20th Century Height 13.5cm, width 318cm, depth 66.5cm This French-crafted tab...

In an ornamental style, with rouge griotte marble and burnished bronze depicting the three Graces, signed 'A. ROBBE. Paris.' This stunning French centrepiece...

19th century, French Empire ground crystal and gilt bronze vase centrepiece This Empire centerpiece, made in France at the beginning of...

A wonderful French Empire doré bronze and cut crystal figural neoclassical centrepiece Measures: 7.5" W x 8" H.

A Large Louis Philippe Period Gilt-Bronze Table Centrepiece or Corbeille (Fruit Basket). Attributed to Guillaume Denière (1815-1903), Paris, Circa 1840. The four sculptural figures of seated children are attributed to Jean-Jacques Feuchère (1807-1852) and represent the four elements of Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. Each figure is accompanied by its corresponding attribute. Fire holds a flaming torch and sits atop a dragon. Water sits atop a dolphin and perhaps originally held a trident spear. Earth holds grapes and ears of wheat accompanied by a lioness and cub. Air holds a billowing robe and sits atop an exotic bird. The circular top of the centrepiece with beaded rim and cast in relief to the basin with strapwork and lion masks. The underside of the basin similarly cast with additional detail of herm figures above a belt of intertwined vine leaf and mice. The whole supported on a baluster upright hung with volutes and fruiting swags above a spreading socle and oval foot. This impressive centrepiece dates to the late 1830s or early 1840s when the patronage of King Louis Philippe I of France heralded a pronounced flourishing in the sculptural art of metallurgy. Such a specific dating can be made with reference to a surtout de table which was commissioned in 1834 by Ferdinand-Philippe, duc d’Orléans and eldest son of King Louis Philippe. That famous and documented surtout de table, comprised centerpieces, candelabra and tazze modelled in a new sculptural style with figures, animals and naturalistic decoration. Designed in the Renaissance revival style by Claude-Aimé Chenavard (1798–1838) and Jean-Baptiste-Jules Klagmann (1810–1867) and made by Chenavard’s pupil Guillaume Denière, the duc d’Orléans surtout was a ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ with input from many designers, modellers and sculptors including from Jean-Jacques Feuchère (1807-1852), Pierre-Jules Cavelier (1814- 1894) and Antoine-Louis Barye (1795–1875). The surtout was delivered to Ferdinand-Philippe’s apartments at the Tuileries Palace in April 1839. Ferdinand Philippe, duc d’Orléans died in a carriage accident three years later, on 13 July 1842 and following the French Revolution of 1848 the extensive surtout was sold by his widow, the former Duchesse Hélène of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1814-1858) at Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 18-20 January 1853. It was divided into multiple lots with the sculptural centrepieces by Antoine-Louis Barye, candelabra and decorative dishes widely dispersed. The present centrepiece compares closely to multiple elements of the duc d’Orléans surtout de table, most obviously in the profusion of Renaissance revival strapwork and the figures of children which in appearance, pose and allegorical purpose are directly comparable to related figures of children variously employed as attributes for music, feasting and hunting across the centrepieces and candelabra which make up the Orléans surtout de table. Compare a pair of candelabra titled ‘candelabra with woman playing flute...

A gilt bronze centrepiece, with two crisply cut bowls on fruiting vine centre supported by two putti on oval base.