Napoléon III Porcelain Urns — Crimson & Gilt Bronze with Hand-Painted Cartouches, Matching Pair

A magnificent pair of porcelain urns in the grand Napoléon III tradition, each dressed in a deep crimson ground of extraordinary richness and mounted with ornate gilt bronze fittings — an acorn finial lid, scrolled ram's head handles of sculptural quality, and a cast octagonal plinth base of considerable weight and presence. Dense gilded arabesques, acanthus scrolls, and lattice reserves cover the neck and shoulder of each vessel, framing the central painted cartouche with the formality of a picture gallery.

Each urn bears two distinct hand-painted scenes, one to each face. The first presents a dramatic figurative composition — richly dressed figures in a wooded romantic landscape, rendered with the loose, gestural confidence of a trained painter working at the height of the decorative arts tradition. The reverse offers a luminous pastoral scene: golden light flooding an open countryside of trees, water, and distant hills, a solitary figure small against the vastness of the landscape. The third view reveals the boldness of the gilded surface in full — pure crimson and gold, uninterrupted, with the bronze ram's head emerging from the vessel wall with the authority of a classical mount.

Objects of this quality and scale — crimson ground, figurative cartouches, bronze animal mounts — represent the apex of nineteenth-century European decorative porcelain. Presented as a matching pair, they are suited to a formal salon, a grand dining room, or any space that demands objects of genuine historical and aesthetic consequence.

Dimensions: Width: 35 cm Height: 95 cm
Each piece is unique and handmade to order.
Contact us to enquire about this piece.