Maison Millet, Pair Of Perfume-burners, France, Circa 1870

Beautiful pair of Louis XVI style perfume burners in amethyst, enhanced with an elegant finely chased and gilded bronze mount attr. to Maison Millet. The ovoid body is topped with a lid featuring a gilded bronze finial and encircled by an openwork gallery adorned with an oak-leaf frieze, ending in a foliage motif centered with a seed ornament. They are embellished with three supports surmounted by ram’s heads holding twisted rings forming the handles, and terminating in leafy hoof feet, resting on a molded concave tripod base decorated with a frieze of water leaves

Renowned for the quality of its chiseling and the choice of materials, the Millet firm had a large workshop with many workers, using its own bronze models and enjoyed collaborations with famous sculptors and bronze-casters such as Claude Marioton.

Biography :
The firm of Théodore Millet was founded in 1853. A very talented specialist in 18th Century reproductions, Millet produced furniture and artistic bronzes of the highest quality. He was one of the few cabinet-makers to obtain authorisation from the Château de Versailles to make in 1902 a replica of Queen Marie-Antoinette’s great jewel cabinet. As an artist of great merit and Specialising in « meubles et bronzes d’art, genre ancien et moderne », Millet obtained the highest rewards such as the Gold medal at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1889 for his first participation, and the Grand Prize at the Universal Exhibition of 1900. The photographic archives show, among the workshops views and the parisian shop, Millet’s stand at the Universal Exhibition in Saint-Louis (US) in 1904. The firm’s influence internationnally is then through its antenna in New-York « Duryea and Potter », 469 fifth avenue, New-Yok. The firm lasted until 1918.