One of the highest prices of 2019 achieved by French auction house Beaussant Lefèvre (27% buyer’s premium inc VAT) was the €310,000 (£262,710) paid on December 6 for this impressively tall 4ft 1in (1.25m) high pair of gilt bronze mounted, footed and covered vases.
They date from the Napoleon III era and are painted with classical scenes of Orthryia carried off by Borée (after the painting by François André Vincent now in the fine Art Museum in Tours) and Time saving truth from Lies and Envy, after François Lemoyne’s work in the Wallace collection. To the reverse are woodland landscapes. The highly detailed gilt mounts feature masks and laurel branches and to the base decoration of lambrequins, ribbons, laurel and porcelain plaques.