"A 19th Century French Ormolu-mounted Centerpiece, Circa 1880"
A 19th Century Chinese Celadon Craquelée Porcelain Ormolu-Mounted Oval Centerpiece Flanked on each side by two handles designed as dragoon
Resting on a Rocaille and Open-Worked Ormolu Base
Circa 1880
Original gilding
Since the Middle Ages, precious objects, most often antique, have been mounted to enhance their appearance, protect them, or give them a new func-tion. These vases or cups made of hard stone, marble, rock crystal, onyx, etc., include the "Suger" eagle, an antique porphyry vase mounted in gilt silver for the treasury of the Basilica of Saint-Denis and now in the Louvre Museum.
Later, during the Renaissance, other natural products such as ostrich eggs, nautilus shells, coconuts, and rhinoceros horns were adorned with precious mounts to decorate cabinets of curiosities.
From the 17th century onward, collectors were more interested in decorative objects than in the unusual. Mounted objects became part of the home décor. These were primarily Chinese or Japanese porcelain pieces embellished with highly skilled gilt-bronze mounts.
At the end of the 18th and throughout the 19th centuries, objects were often designed with their mounts, thus retaining the idea of a mounted object and two materials that complement each other, but losing the intention of repurpo-sing a piece and juxtaposing two civilizations.
With the vogue for Japonisme at the end of the 19th century, "L'Escalier de Cristal" produced numerous vases in enameled crystal with gilt bronze mounts.
At the beginning of the 20th century, wrought iron gained prominence thanks to ironworkers such as Edgar Brandt, Raymond Subes, and Gilbert Poillerat. It was wrought iron that, in turn, was used to enhance ceramic objects, such as the monumental vase presented here, whose stoneware body, mounted in wrought iron in the 1920s, was probably designed for architectural or garden decoration.
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