Originally part of a garniture with a clock and further pair of vases almost certainly supplied to Prince Auguste d’Arenberg (1753-1833), duc d’Arenberg and comte de Lamarck for the hôtel de Charost, Paris, which is now the British Embassy. Similar satyr-masks on the handles can be seen upon a pair of gilt-bronze mounted turqouise porcelain vases in the musée Nissim de Camondo (inv. 159). A pair of gilt-bronze mounted Chinese porcelain vases in the Frick collection (inv. 18.8.45-46) is probably by the same bronzier, they are stylisticly very close and have been associated to the Godille, a celebrated craftsmen family by T. Dell.

These vases as other pairs such as the one previously in the Earl of Powis collection bear very close related characteristics found on goût grec revival circa 1770-1775. These exceptional gilt-bronze-mounted Chinese ‘powder blue’ porcelain vases cornets are rare not only for their sumptuous gilt-bronze mounts but also their number, comprising two identical pairs. They perfectly encapsulate le goût français in the 18th century, of embellishing Chinese porcelain objects with lavish gilt-bronze mounts. The oriental porcelain wares arrived in France from the East which were then mounted under the direction of the Parisian marchands-merciers such as Lazare Duvaux. This porcelain was considered exotic and rare but the use of mounts amplified the preciousness of the object, while at the same time giving the object a French aspect.’… Sir Francis Watson states, ’…during the eighteenth century the main reason for setting these oriental objects in mounts of European design was to naturalize them to the decoration of a French interior’. In 1773, the inventory of the comte de La Marck listed five vases on the chimney piece of the bedroom of the comtesse: ‘Une garniture cheminée composée d’un pot à oeil et quatre vases de différents formes le tout en porcelaine montée garnie en bronze dorée d’or moulu’. The grandson of the duc d’Arenberg and comte de La Marck, rented part of the hôtel to the Portuguese Ambassador to Paris, Don Vincent de Souza Coutiñho, in February 1790 and following the latter’s death on 8th May 1792, an inventory of the contents was drawn up on 20th July 1792, where one pair of vases (Pair A) were listed as originally part of a garniture comprising: ‘une pendule montée sur vase de porcelaine bleue enrichie de bronze et ornement de cuivre doré mat, quatre vases de porcelaine bleue aussi montée sur cuivre avec bronze le tout doré au mat..’ see Augarde, op cit., illustrated p.198, fig 159