French Napoléon III Ormolu-Mounted Pair of Lamps, circa 1895

Pair of large Japanese Porcelain Cone Shape Vases with Imari decoration Important mounts in ormolu and gilded metal, the base decorated with a laurel wreath, the upper part of falling leaves and a frieze of knotted ribbon. The mounts signed Gagneau, 115 R. Lafayette. Circa 1860 With their original aluminium bulb cover and original gilding Vase it self Height 47 cm The Gagneau Company is one of the most famous lighting factories in Paris in the nine-teenth century, established in 1800 at 25 rue d'Enghien in Paris and later at 115 rue de Lafayette. She has participated in many exhibitions throughout this century. She began in 1819 with the Exposition des Produits de l'Industrie and later participated in the Universal Exhibitions where she was part of the jury in the category of art bronzes (class 25) at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1889. "Imari" was simply the trans-shipment port for Arita wares, from where they went to the for-eign trading outposts at Nagasaki. It was the kilns at Arita which formed the heart of the Japanese porcelain industry. Arita's kilns were set up in the 17th century, after kaolin was discovered in 1616. A popular legend attributes the discovery to an immigrant Korean potter, Yi Sam-Pyeong (1579–1655), although most historians consider this doubtful. After the discovery, some kilns began to produce revised Korean-style blue and white porcelains, known as Early Imari, or "Shoki-Imari". In the mid-17th century, there were also many Chinese refugees in northern Kyushu due to the turmoil in China, and it is said that one of them brought the overglaze enamel coloring technique to Arita. Thus Shoki-Imari developed into Ko-Kutani, Imari, and later Kakiemon, which are sometimes taken as a wider group of Imari wares. Ko-Kutani was produced around 1650 for both export and domestic market.Kutani Ware is characterized by vivid green, blue, purple, yellow and red colors in bold designs of landscapes and nature. Blue and white porcelain pieces continued to be produced and they are called Ai-Kutani. Ko-Kutani Imari for the export market usually adopted Chinese design structure such as kraak style, whereas Ai-Kutani for the domestic market were highly unique in design and are ac-cordingly valued very much among collectors. Ko-Kutani style evolved into Kakiemon-style Imari, which was produced for about 50 years around 1700. Kakiemon was characterized by crisp lines, and bright blue, red and green designs of dramatically stylized floral and bird scenes. Imari achieved its technical and aes-thetic peak in the Kakiemon style, and it dominated the European market. Blue and white Kakiemon is called Ai-Kakiemon. The Kakiemon style transformed into Kinrande in the 18th century, using underglaze blue and overglaze red and gold enamels, and later additional colors. Imari began to be exported to Europe when the Chinese kilns at Jingdezhen were damaged in the political chaos and the new Qing dynasty government halted trade in 1656–1684. Ex-ports to Europe were made through the Dutch East India Company, and in Europe the des-ignation "Imari porcelain" connotes Arita wares of mostly Kinrande Imari. Export of Imari to Europe stopped in mid-18th century when China resumed export to Europe, since Imari was not able to compete against Chinese products due to high labor costs. By that time, however, both Imari and Kakiemon styles were already so popular among Eu-ropeans that the Chinese export porcelain copied both, a type known as Chinese Imari. At the same time, European kilns, such as Meissen and English potteries such as Johnson Bros. and (Royal) Crown Derby, also imitated the Imari and Kakiemon styles. Export of Imari surged again in late 19th century (Meiji era) when Japonism flourished in Europe.Thus, in the western world today, two kinds of true Japanese Imari can...

Pair of French Napoléon III Curule Armchairs Moulded, carved, blackened wood, enhanced with gold. Open-banded back decorated with interlacing, X-bas...

19th Century French Pair of chiseled and gilded bronze wall-lights, the fluted barrel, from which acanthus leaves escape in scrolls forming two arms of light, and crowned with a fire pot, neck-shovels with twisted flutes, heart, hoes with leaves of water. Circa 1880 Parisian quality work of the late nineteenth century after a model by Jean-Charles Delafosse (1734-1791), famous french architect, ornamentist and painter. Original gilding Electrified H 40 cm L 36 cm P 20 cm The model of our sconces takes the creations of 18th century bronzers who were directly inspired by the drawings of Jean-Charles Delafosse in the 1760s. In particular, the collection of engravings...

A French 19th Century Cornucopia Gilt-Bronze Cartel, by Susse Frères Paris An Ormolu Cartel in the shape of an escutcheon, with a circular white enamel dial, signed Susse Frères/A Paris, Arabic numerals for the hours and for the minutes. It's bordered by a frieze of pearls and surmounted by a falling laurel knot with a drapery in the lower part and flanked by cornucopias adorned with flowers and fruits. Rectangular base decorated with a garland of knotted flowers dying in a tapered, fluted barrel and damping, in the upper part, a flowery Medici vase. Louis XVI Style Circa 1870 Original gilding uncleaned The Susse company, a worldwide reknown foundry, began to cast pieces as soon as the first half of the 19th Century. Awarded medals...

Very Fine French 19th Century Pair of Candlesticks In ormolu, very finely chiseled and decorated with knotted garlands, branches of leafy flowers, spokes of hearts, leaves of water...

A 19th French century pair of Lacquered Bamboos Japonisme vases. An amazing pair of tall cylindrical bamboo vases decorated in Japanese Gold and Sil-ver Hiramaki-E Lacquer with Pavilions in The Mist and Weaving Figures, Flown Over by a Pair of Cranes. Enclosed in a Sino-Japanese Inspiration Golden and Brown Patina Bronze Mount Featuring Elephant Heads, Partially Openwork Branches and Salamanders Forming Side Handles. Circa 1870 Attributed to Édouard Lièvre (1828-1886) and Ferdinand Barbedienne (1810-1892) Édouard Lièvre (1828-1886) is one of the most talented and prolific designer and industrialist of the 19th Century, his repertoire is sometimes Sino-Japanese or Neo-Renaissance, whether in furniture or works of art, we can note in particular the parade bed of Valtesse de La Bigne, furniture commissioned by the painter Édouard Detaille or even Sarah Bernhardt, and the famous works in collaboration with Maison Christofle or those in gilded bronze and cloisonné enamel edited by Ferdinand Barbedienne, presented at the Universal Exhibitions in 1878, 1889 and 1900. He was both a draftsman, painter, illustrator, engraver, ornamentalist and cabinetmaker, first trained in the studio of the painter Thomas Couture, Lièvre was then fully immersed in the world of decoration, creation and ornamentation and provides designs for manufacturers and merchant-publishers. Often assisted by his brother Justin, he first produced works of art for his own apartment, seeking out the finest craftsmen to execute his designs for bronzes, ceramics, fabrics and luxury furniture from great virtuosity and great taste. He then collaborated with the cabinet-maker Paul Sormani, as well as haberdasher merchants such as the Escalier de Cristal, bronziers such as Maison Marnyhac and especially Ferdinand Barbedienne as on our vases with bronze mounts characteristics of Edouard Lièvre's work. Born in 1810, died in Paris in 1892, Ferdinand Barbedienne, the most important caster of bronze pieces of art during the second half of the 19th Century, created and directed in Par-is one of the major artistic foundries of his time. Barbedienne specialized in classical reproductions, whose models were exposed in famous European museums. Their illustrated catalogues included many diverse objects such as busts, ornemental sculpture (clocks, candelabras, cups) sometimes even life-sized and bronzes for furniture. Apart from his own produc-tion, Barbedienne worked for the most renowned sculptors such as Barrias, Clésinger and Carrier-Belleuse. All his works were highly esteemed and he, himself honored by contemporary critics. At the London exhibition in 1851 Barbedienne’s firm won two « Council medals ». At the 1855 Universal Exhibition, he won a medal of honor. The success of Barbedienne’s firm brought him many official commissions, such in about 1860, as Barbedienne supplied bronzes for furniture for the Pompeian Villa of Prince Napoléon-Joseph, located avenue Montaigne in Paris. At the London Universal Exhibition of 1862 Barbedienne won medals in three different categories: Furniture, Silversmith work and Artistic bronzes. Barbedienne was made an officer of the Légion d’Honneur in 1867 and Commander in 1878 when he was compared with « a prince of industry and the king of bronze casting ». His glory did not decline with the passage of the time for at the Universal Exhibition of 1889 the critics thanked Barbedienne for the example he set for other bronze-casters by the perfection of his bronzes. “Japonisme” in the second half of the 19th century, was a craze for everything that came from Japan or imitated its style. The word was first coined in a series of articles published by Philippe Burty, from May 1872 to February 1873, in the French magazine “la Renaissance Littéraire et Artistique”. Far from the Academic sphere, artists seeking for new ways of expression, appropriated this discovery. Manet and the impressionists led the way to half a century of enthusiasm for Japanese art, and largely contributed to the esthetical revolution Europe experienced between 1860 and the beginning of the twentieth century. From 1862, The World’s Fairs provoked massive arrivals of fans, kimonos, lacquers, bronzes, silks, prints and books that launched the real era of Japonisme. With those exhibitions, the demand was boosted, the number of merchants and collectors was multiplied, and artists became passionate about this new esthetic. For them, its “primitivism” was probably its most important quality: artists were fond of the Japanese art’s capacity to be close to nature and to reconcile art and society by representing, with a lot of care, the most trivial objects. In painting, Edouard Manet, Mary Cassatt, Degas, Van Gogh, Gauguin were among those who were deeply inspired by Japanese art, affected by the lack of perspective and shadow, the flat areas of strong color, the compositional freedom in placing the subject off-center, with mostly low diagonal axes to the background. The Japanese iris, peonies, bamboos, kimonos, calligraphy, fish, butterflies and other insects, the blackbirds, cranes and wading birds, the cats, tigers, and dragons were endless sources of inspiration, appropriation, and reinterpretation for European artists. The occidental productions were combining styles and artistic conceptions instead of copying Japanese art slavishly. That is what brings to light the comparison between the artworks of Kitagawa Utamaro and Degas, of Katsushika Hokusai and Van Gogh The World’s Fairs of 1851 and 1862 in London, those of 1867, 1878, 1889 and 1900 in Paris, of 1873 in Vienna and of 1904 in Saint Louis presented a number of “Japanese-Chinese” installations with earthenware, bronzes, screens and paintings and attracted the largest amounts of visitors In Vienna, the “Japanese village...

Pair antique French Napoleon III Classic style red marble and ormolu mounted lamps with handmade silk shades, circa 1875-1885.

A pair of good Napoleon III rouge marble vases, each mounted in ormolu with a pair of square bracket handles and collars of pointed leaves, now fitted for electricity. French, circa ...

Pair of fine quality 19th Century Louis XVI style Sevres porcelain ormolu mounted table lamps. Traditional French porcelain. These beautiful h...

Pair of French cassolettes marble and ormolu bronze table lamps with rams head mounts, floral ribbon swags, hoof feet, and terminatin...

A large pair of onyx and ormolu lamps, each with a central fluted column surmounted by a sconce and supporting six further ornate branches of lights, all r...

A porcelain ormolu-mounted Chinese export style vase Now mounted as a lamp Early 20th century, probably Samson The vase is in the form of a meiping In the Chinese export famil...