Object Description
These beautiful painted and gilt vases were crafted in c.1810 by the important Parisian porcelain factory, Dihl et Guérhard (French, 1781-c.1824). Porcelain items manufactured by Dihl et Guérhard can be found today in the British Museum in London, the Met Museum in New York and other prestigious decorative art collections. The vases are designed in a refined Neoclassical (or ‘Empire’) style, which came into fashion in the period when Napoleon Bonaparte was Emperor of France (1804-1814,15).
The porcelain vases are of campana form, featuring upside-down bell-shaped bodies with small handles in the form of classical masks. The vases stand on splayed feet, on short square plinths. The vases are gilded and are finely painted with pinky-red geometric belts and green and white foliate bands. Their bodies feature green oval medallions which are painted with white, pink and gold lyres flanked by griffins. These are set within fluted blue borders.
‘Dihl’ is signed onto the undersides of the vases.