French porcelain and ormolu vases with courting scenes
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A pair of French porcelain and ormolu vases and covers, late 19th century, decorated to one side with scenes of courting couples, and floral arrangements to the other side, set within a gilt border on a celeste blue ground, flanked by a pair of ormolu winged caryatid handles joining to a pierced frieze, the whole set on a shaped square pedestal base, 70 cm high, 32 cm wide
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- Ormolu - Ormolu was popular with French craftsmen in the 18th and 19th century for ornamental fittings for furniture, clocks and other decorative items. True ormolu is gilt bronze, that is bronze that has been coated with gold using a mercury amalgam. Due to the health risks associated with using mercury, this method of creating ormolu was discontinued in France in the 1830s. A substitute was developed consisting of about 75% copper and 25% zinc, however it was inferior to the bronze version. It was often lacquered to prevent it tarnishing.
- Frieze - An architectural term denoting the flat, shaped or convex horizontal surface of furniture, between the architrave and the cornice, usually found on a cabinet or bookcase, or on desks and tables where it may include drawers, the area between the top and the legs. In ceramics, the term refers to the banding, of usually a repeating pattern, on the rims of plates and vases.
- Caryatid - A Greek term that in architecture applies to a carved or cast female figures that acts as a column or pillar, supporting an entablature on her head.
In decorative arts , in furniture of the Renaissance and Classical Revival periods. Male figures are known as Atlantes.
Carved figures are rare on Australian furniture until the later 19th century, Australian craftsmen generally preferring to adopt the designs of the pattern books to rather more simple forms, such as scrolls or columns.
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