A LARGE PAIR OF EMPIRE ORMOLU URNS

ATTRIBUTED TO PIERRE-PHILIPPE THOMIRE, CIRCA 1810

Details

The campana-form vases with gadrooned everted rim over celebratory putti relief flanked by handles with rams' head terminals atop an oak-leaf molded socle, the plinth bases applied with classical masks in laurel-wreath roundels and flaming athéniennes over acanthus and leaf-tip molding
23 1/2 in. (60 cm.) high, 11 in. (28 cm.) diameter
Provenance

Collection of Joachim Murat, Maréchal de France, King of Naples, Royal Palace of Naples.
Sold at auction 1815.
Collection of Marchese Emilio Tortora Brayda di Belvedere, and thence by descent until sold,
Sotheby's, New York, 25 April 1998, lot 225.


Lot Essay

Joachim Murat (1767-1815), was one of Napoleon's most distinguished generals who married Napoleon's youngest sister Caroline. Having a taste for sumptuous living, Murat and his wife, after having resided from 1802 in the hôtel de Thélusson (a splendid Neoclassical house built in the 1780s by Ledoux), purchased the Elysée Palace in August 1805 which they furnished and renovated at enormous expense - 2,732 francs in total - and completed in November 1806. The modifications were executed by architects Vignon and Thibault, while Jacob Desmalter supplied the furnishings (menuiserie and ébenisterie), Ravrio the gilt-bronzes and Boulard the textiles and upholstery, see J. Coural, Le Palais de l'Elysée: Histoire et Décor, Paris, 1994, p. 49. After Napoleon’s brother Joseph had been awarded with the Spanish throne, Murat took his place as King of Naples between 1808 and 1815, when he was ousted by the Austrians and British. He fled to Corsica where he was captured and eventually executed. By the height of his power, Murat had amassed a large collection of Italian old master paintings, as well as contemporary French fine and decorative arts. After Murat’s death, Caroline managed to retain part of this collection and supported herself by selling works from it while in exile. The rest of the collection was sold at auction in 1815 and purchased by Marchese Emilio Tortora Brayda di Belvedere (1784-1854) for his residences in Molfetta and in Manfredonia. After passing down in his family, these vases were sold by his descendants at auction in New York in 1998.
The crisp quality of the chasing, overall design and rich gilding of these vases of impressive size closely relate this lot to the work of the celebrated bronzier Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751-1843). Thomire studied under both the eighteenth century sculptors Pajou and Houdon and the bronzier Gouthière. But by the early nineteenth century he had become famous for his gilt-bronze furniture mounts, clocks, candelabra and other table decorations. Thomire was responsible for designing and fitting ormolu mounts at the Sèvres factory after Duplessis's death in 1783 and he frequently collaborated with Dominique Daguerre. During the early 1800s, he was quick to adapt to the new severely classical design vocabulary of the Empire, and was undoubtedly influenced by the work of the acclaimed court architect-designers Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine. In 1809, Napoleon bestowed Thomire the title of Ciseleur de l'Empereur. His firm was one of the most successful of the Empire period although it continued well after his most famous patron Napoleon left France, even into the 1850's. From 1819 the company was known simply as Thomire & Compagnie.