Large Antique Pair French Ormolu Bronze Cassolettes C1880.

Beautiful and large antique pair of French Louis XVI ormolu gilt bronze cassolettes in the Neo-Grecian style. Circa 1880. Numbered and stamped Hebert (*Pierre-Eugène-Émile Hébert (1823 – 1893) to underside of bases.

The large and superbly proportioned vase bodies with classical female bust (Medussa) on both faces. Pierced girdles united by beaded, leafy foliage and tasselled garlands decorating the vase throughout. Finials terminating with bronze flame, with fixed lid, similarly pierced and decorated. Lion figure heads in patina bronze to four quadrants of the stem. Handles in bronze repeating the main decoration, each with scrolls and finely sculptured with putti / cupid face. The whole assembly with fixing rod.

Condition: Beautifully burnished, highest quality, and near perfect condition (some v minor rubbing. Heavy at 6Kg each (some photographic distortion to circular field).

Height = 47cm (measured to top of finial); Diameter = 25cm (measured across handles).

*Pierre-Eugène-Émile Hébert (1823 – 1893) was a French sculptor. As the son of sculptor Pierre Hébert, he studied with his father and Jean-Jacques Feuchère (1807–1852). Émile Hébert participated in the Salon de Paris and the Exposition Universelle (1855). He was awarded a Second Class Medal in 1872. Émile Hébert was one of the few sculptors to collaborate with the renowned bronze fondeur Georges Servant, resulting in pieces in the Neo-Grecian and Egyptian Revival styles.