A Pair of Empire-Style Gilt-Bronze-Mounted Levanto Rouge Marble Urns, Mounted As Lamps

Object Description

A Pair of Empire-Style Gilt-Bronze-Mounted Levanto Rouge Marble Urn Lamps After Claude Galle

A magnificent pair of Empire-style gilt-bronze-mounted Levanto Rouge marble urns, mounted as lamps, after the celebrated models by Claude Galle (1759–1815).

Each urn is of elongated ovoid loutrophoros form, with richly cast gilt-bronze mounts depicting winged naiads forming scrolling handles, their entwined tails terminating in classical trumpets. The Levanto Rouge marble bodies are encircled by finely chased gilt-bronze knurled bands and raised on architectural bases decorated with palmette and anthemion motifs, terminating in spreading gilt-bronze feet above square-section green marble plinths.

France, circa 1890.

Object History

Inspired by important First Empire designs attributed to the celebrated maître-fondeur Claude Galle, these exceptional late 19th-century urns embody the refinement, symmetry, and classical vocabulary of the Empire style. Their sophisticated combination of richly coloured marble and finely modelled gilt bronze reflects the enduring influence of Napoleonic decorative arts during the Belle Époque revival.

A pair of gilt-bronze urns of this model by Claude Galle is illustrated in H. Ottomeyer and P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Vol. I, Munich, 1986, p. 365, fig. 5.12.8.

A related pair of urns mounted as candelabra, originally supplied as part of the furnishings for the First Consul at Saint-Cloud in 1802–1803, was recorded in Madame Bonaparte’s private apartments before being transferred to the Trianon in 1838 (illustrated in D. Ledoux-Lebard, Le Grand Trianon, Paris, 1975, p. 62).

A further comparable pair of gilt-bronze urns by Claude Galle is preserved in the collection of the Villa Masséna, Nice (L. Mézin, La Villa Masséna du Premier Empire à la Belle Époque, Éditions d’art Somogy, 2010, pp. 54–55, cat. no. 10).

Object Details